NEW YORK (AA) - ''Turkey does its best to help Iraq reach a democratic system by preserving its political integrity. Turkey is the country sending the most aid to Iraq to overcome the difficult conditions,'' Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday.
Erdogan said, ''any failure in Iraq constitutes a problem for the people of the region and anyhow for the international community.''
In his speech on ''Turkish Foreign Policy and Relations with the United States: Shared Visions and Partnership of Capabilities Strengthening Each Other'', Erdogan also touched on Iraq.
Erdogan said the United States and its allies, at first, could not reach a full agreement on the method to cope with the Iraqi problem.
Erdogan said Turkey extended support to the United States in the light of its own experiences and in the way it considers as appropriate as a result of its democratic decision making processes, ''however, the cooperation we have been carrying out in line with our mutual understanding as regards to the final target continues.''
Erdogan said, ''''any failure in Iraq constitutes a problem for the regional people and for international community. To this end, we should improve cooperation and coordination.''
Erdogan emphasized that another area where approaches and targets of Turkey and the United States overlap is the agenda of reforms and democratization in Turkey's neighboring geographies. He said that Turkey's wishes about the Middle East and Islam world are ''free, open and democratic societies, effective economic structures that help them reach prosperity and implementation of principles of better governance''.
''Turkey's foreign and domestic policy helps creation of an appropriate regional atmosphere for the desired positive change. We will strengthen this special contribution by supporting international efforts,'' Erdogan stressed.
''As the co-chairman of the Democracy Assistance Dialogue formed within the framework of G-8 initiative, we will host a conference on the role of women in a democratic society in Istanbul next week. This will continue with the contributions in other areas,'' Erdogan said.
Erdogan said Turkey maintained its foreign policy by producing confidence and stability on the one side and by encouraging the positive change on the other side.
''ENERGY CORRIDOR''
''The strategic targets put forth by the United States to strengthen global peace and freedom overlaps Turkey's targets. This is a manifestation of shared joint values,'' Erdogan said.
Erdogan said implementation of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline was one of the concrete results of this. ''This is an open expression that Turkey is becoming an energy corridor. We will set up a natural gas connection between Turkey to Greece on July 3rd. This line will strengthen the veins of peace.''
TERRORISM, TURKISH-EU RELATIONS...
Emphasizing Arab-Israeli problem in his speech, Erdogan said, ''terrorism does not have religion, language or nation. Turkey suffered a lot from terrorism. If we are to fight jointly against terrorism, then we demand necessary support to Turkey. We reiterate our call that opportunities should not be given to PKK KONGRA/GEL to hole up in north of Iraq.''
As to the Turkish-EU relations, Erdogan mentioned the referendums held in France and the Netherlands on EU Constitution, stating that the EU Constitution was voted there, not Turkey's EU membership.
''I believe that entry talks will start on October 3rd. Our interlocutor is not any country, but the EU,'' Erdogan added.

2005-06-10