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NEW TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER SEEKS GREATER REGIONAL ROLE
PanARMENIAN.Net
02.05.2009 20:43 GMT+04:00
Turkey's new foreign minister said on Saturday he wants the country
to play a bigger role in the Middle East and Balkans but its relations
with the West would continue to be its main foreign policy focus.
Middle East expert Ahmet Davutoglu was appointed as Turkey's new
foreign minister on Friday in the largest cabinet change since the
Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party, or AKP, first swept
to power in 2002.
Davutoglu, a respected but controversial diplomat who expanded
Turkey's foreign policy beyond its traditional Western-orientated
focus, takes charge as the country seeks to improve regional security,
from Armenia to Iraq and Iran.
Taking office on Saturday from Ali Babacan, who was named as the new
deputy prime minister in charge of the economy, Davutoglu said Turkey
now had a stronger foreign policy vision towards the Middle East,
Balkans and the Caucasus region.
"It has to take on the role of an order-instituting country in all
these regions," Davutoglu said. "Turkey is no longer a country which
only reacts to crises, but notices the crises before their emergence
and intervenes in the crises effectively and gives shape to the order
of its surrounding region."
Davutoglu, who has assumed an active role in NATO member Turkey's
Middle East mediation efforts between Israel and Arab countries and
in solving conflicts in the neighboring Caucasus, said relations with
the West would remain Turkey's main focus.
"The European Union and NATO are the most important pillars of the
policy of setting a balance between security and freedom," he said,
Hurriyet Daily News reported.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
PanARMENIAN.Net
02.05.2009 20:43 GMT+04:00
Turkey's new foreign minister said on Saturday he wants the country
to play a bigger role in the Middle East and Balkans but its relations
with the West would continue to be its main foreign policy focus.
Middle East expert Ahmet Davutoglu was appointed as Turkey's new
foreign minister on Friday in the largest cabinet change since the
Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party, or AKP, first swept
to power in 2002.
Davutoglu, a respected but controversial diplomat who expanded
Turkey's foreign policy beyond its traditional Western-orientated
focus, takes charge as the country seeks to improve regional security,
from Armenia to Iraq and Iran.
Taking office on Saturday from Ali Babacan, who was named as the new
deputy prime minister in charge of the economy, Davutoglu said Turkey
now had a stronger foreign policy vision towards the Middle East,
Balkans and the Caucasus region.
"It has to take on the role of an order-instituting country in all
these regions," Davutoglu said. "Turkey is no longer a country which
only reacts to crises, but notices the crises before their emergence
and intervenes in the crises effectively and gives shape to the order
of its surrounding region."
Davutoglu, who has assumed an active role in NATO member Turkey's
Middle East mediation efforts between Israel and Arab countries and
in solving conflicts in the neighboring Caucasus, said relations with
the West would remain Turkey's main focus.
"The European Union and NATO are the most important pillars of the
policy of setting a balance between security and freedom," he said,
Hurriyet Daily News reported.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress