ISTANBUL, Feb 12 (A.A) - Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said on Tuesday that the argument of clash of civilizations and cultures has lost its validity in considerable extent, adding ''the way to integration between the east and the west in all respects has been opened.''
Ecevit addressed the luncheon in which the theme of ''Prevention of Political and Cultural Fault Lines'' were taken up.
Noting that Turkey is very pleased to host representatives of OIC and EU countries in Istanbul, Ecevit said that the meeting is a great opportunity to improve harmony and dialogue between the west and east and among different religions.
''Istanbul is a proper place for launching such an effort where people come and go between Europe and Asia every day,'' said Ecevit and noted that the gradual unification of the two continents has brough a central status to Turkey in Eurasia process.
''Famous British writer and poet Rudyard Kipling claimed that the destiny of the east and west was to stay apart and different. This prediction reflected the mentality and strategy of certain imperialist powers. These powers tried to keep away the East, the countries of Asia and Africa from the cultural, scientific and economic successes of the imperialism and to protect the latter's political and economic superiority. Yet the end of imperialism started to decrease the cultural differences and opened the way to scientific, economic, technologic progress. I believe that in this respect the argument of clash of civilizations has lost its validity in considerable extent and the way to East and West to unite an all aspects has been opened.''
Recalling that the clashes among ideologies and hatred among races caused wars and genocides, Ecevit said that religious clashes took the place of ideological clashes in certain geographies recently.
Ecevit said that religion has a deeper place than ideology in the souls of individuals, noting that clashes based on religions can be more dangerous than other clashes. Ecevit stressed that the Turkish Republic took up this problem meticiously and successfully, adding that the traditional attitude and the respect of the secular Turkish Republic to different religious feelings and beliefs eased this understanding.
Ecevit said that the terrorist attacks in the U.S. on Sept. 11 drew the interest of the world on the big terrorism threat, adding that ''this incident showed that terrorist incidents can be carried out very cheaply and easily, but the measures against terrorism are very difficult and expensive. Therefore, we need effective international cooperation against terrorism.''
Ecevit said that the group which carried out the terrorist activities in the U.S. on Sept. 11 claimed that it acted in the name of Islam, adding that ''this is a deception which can't be accepted and which can't be tolarated. The world would be divided dangerously if the Islam countries didn't immediately react to this claim and if the Christian countries didn't avoid from identifying this activity with Islam. Such a disaster was prevented thanks to God. This joint forum in Istanbul, which is a Eurasian metropol proves the resolution of the humanity to resist terrorism and to prevent religious clashes together.''