Turkey Welcomes Renewed International Focus on the Region

Yann Zopf, Director, Public Engagement; Tel.: +41 (0)79 204 1610, yann.zopf@weforum.org

Türkçe

• Turkey strongly affected by the offensive by what is known as ISIS due to its proximity to the conflict zone
• Turkish Prime Minister Davutoğlu welcomes international community’s new focus on the crisis in the region
• Turkey would like to see its enthusiasm for EU membership reciprocated by EU, says Prime Minister
• For more information on the World Economic Forum Special Meeting:http://wef.ch/eume14

Istanbul, Turkey, 29 September 2014 – The threat posed by what is referred to as ISIS is felt with special intensity in Turkey because of the country’s location on the region’s political and economic fault lines, said Ahmet Davutoğlu, Prime Minister of Turkey, addressing the World Economic Forum Special Meeting on Unlocking Resources for Regional Development in Istanbul.

The Prime Minister welcomed the international community’s new focus on the crisis in the region. He contrasted Turkey’s consistent position in support of democracy since the Arab Spring with the wavering position of the western world. “We are where we are today because we did not support democratic change forcefully enough at the time, ” he said.

Turkey was practically alone in providing financial support to underwrite the democratic transition in the Arab world, said Davutoğlu. He contrasted the West’s failure during the changes in the Middle East with the activist stance it took in the 1990s on Eastern Europe and in the Balkans. Turkey had warned of the coming storm, he said, and noted that the West was now catching up in its understanding of what was at stake.

Saying that everyone has a right to democratic rule, the Prime Minister criticized the notion that associates Muslims with authoritarian rule. Turkey had supported democracy in the Middle East when Europe abandoned it, he said. “We have paid a heavy price for this abandonment,” he said.

Outlining his new government’s strategic vision, Davutoğlu underscored Turkey’s European vocation. “We have made clear that we see our destiny in Europe and the EU needs to show it sees its future with Turkey.” He was critical of individual EU countries that slow the pace of negotiations on particular chapters and objected to the exclusion of Turkey – despite its customs union – from EU trade agreements with third parties.

Notes to Editors

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