WASHINGTON D.C., March 19 (A.A) - General Staff Planning and Principles Department Chairman General Resat Turgut said on Tuesday, ''Europe should give up supporting terrorism. As a Muslim, secular and democratic country, Turkey's full membership to the European Union (EU) is also of great importance for benefits of the West.''
Speaking at the 21st annual conference of the American-Turkish Council (ATC) in Washington D.C., General Turgut said, ''Turkey's characteristics of being a model has come to the forefront in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York on September 11, 2001. For the welfare of whole humanity, the West needs modern, secular and democratic Turkey having a population of mostly Muslims, a unique position and Eurasian characteristics.''
''If other Islam countries see that Turkey receives a positive support from the West, they can raise their countries and cultures to the level of universal values like Turkey has done. If the West continues to ignore the facts, probably a clash among civilizations envisaged by Huntington would not take place, but possibility of individual terrorist attacks like the attacks of September 11 would continue to pose a serious threat,'' he said.
General Turgut stressed that Europe had not extended enough support to exclude terrorist organizations such as PKK, Relovulationary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) and Hezbollah, although they were included in the United States' list of terrorist organizations.
He said, ''duty of the West should be to support Turkey and introduce Turkey as a model country to other Islam countries. Unfortunately, Turkey has faced double-standards instead of support. Turkey has been endeavouring to draw attention of the West to the issue of terrorism for years. However, Turkey could not find any support in the international platforms. Turkey also witnessed that some western countries including its neighbors had used terrorism in Turkey as a foreign policy element.''
''Terrorist organization PKK has been carrying out armed activities with the support of some neighboring countries and some European states since 1984. 30 thousand people have lost their lives and we have suffered a 100 billion U.S. dollars of loss as a result of PKK's activities since 1984. Greece, one of our allies in NATO, provided PKK militants with training. Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the terrorist organization PKK, was invited to Greece by the Greek parliament. After leaving Syria, Ocalan was hosted in Russia, Italy, Greece and Greek Embassy in Kenya. Moreover, he was carrying a Greek Cypriot passport when he was captured in Kenya. In addition, some European countries have still been continuing to support PKK although they have banned activities of PKK,'' he said.
Referring to issue of Armenia, General Turgut said, ''Armenian terrorist organization ASALA killed 34 Turkish diplomats in 153 separate terrorist attacks between 1974 and 1984. The West did not show any reaction to these terrorist attacks. Those who supported these terrorists, put forward baseless allegations as a pretext. Both Turkish government and nation were disappointed with the European Parliament's calling on Turkey to recognize the so-called Armenian genocide and its using this issue against Turkey in its EU full membership process. This issue should be left to historians. The European Parliament should have appointed a team of experts to find out the facts before adopting such a document.''
Stressing that such attitudes could incite new terrorist attacks, General Turgut said, ''if the history is studied impartially, one can see easily that genocide allegations were totally baseless. As the war between Turkey and Russia had been continuing during the World War I, Armenians had fought with Russians against Turks to acquire their independence. On those days, Armenians staged attacks on Turkish villages and blocked logistic support routes. As a result, the Ottoman Empire decided to settle Armenians in Lebanon, a part of the empire that had not been affected by the continuing war. The distance was about 800-1000 kilometres. Some Armenians died as a result of the continuing war and relocation. Putting forward such baseless allegations reveals that Armenians did not understand the content of genocide.''
Stressing that the new world order included multi-dimensional threats and risks, General Turgut enumerated these threats and risks as terrorism, micro nationalism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, environmental problems, fundamentalism, organized crimes and illicit drug trafficking.
Noting that the West could not understand the issue of terrorism, General Turgut said, ''terrorism resorted by the poor to take advantage from power balance, replaced with war tactics. Within this framework, ordinary people, the poor and ignorant were forced to perceive the West as an enemy by those using Islam religion for their own purposes. Democratic and secular Turkey can play an important role to this end. If the West had understood Turkey's role, it would have not harshly criticized Turkey's peculiar democratic requirements. Also, it would have not supported indirectly terrorist organizations or blocked Turkey's joining the EU. Turkey's protecting its stability and developing its economy are beneficial for the West. Turkey's full membership to the EU has a special importance. However, our European friends are not aware of this fact.''
Stressing that religious belief was being used as a tool in countries suffering from poverty, General Turgut added, ''the West should give up its selfish approach.''