Dialog Eurasia Platform builds cultural bridges between Eurasian countries and Turkey. The journalists from Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kazan paid separate visits to Zaman, Sabah, Hürriyet, ATV, Star TV, CNN Türk, CHA and Today’s Zaman during their three-day stay in Turkey. Professor İlber Ortaylı hosted them at Topkapı Palace. An interesting development in the relations with Russia took place during the 32nd Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers held in San’a, Yemen, in June 2005. At the meeting, the Russian Federation was admitted to the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) as an observer member. Furthermore, Russia was delegated at the Extraordinary Mecca Islamic Summit on Dec. 7-8, 2005. The opening up of Russia, one of the five permanent UN Security Council members, toward the Islamic world is undoubtedly a very important strategic step for the alliance of civilizations and intercultural dialogue.
Today, 20 million Muslims live in Russia, which has a population of 143 million. Turkish businessmen have strived to enhance commercial ties with Russia for the last 15 years. The sponsor of the aforementioned dinner, the Association for Business and Friendship between Russian Federation and Turkey (RUTID), is known for its endless efforts to improve bilateral relations between the two countries. ENKA Holding’s Honorary Chair Şarık Tara also serves as RUTID’s honorary president. Taraf upholds that enhancing ties with Russia is more vital than improving the relations with the US and Germany.
Tara noted that Russia would leave Europe behind in 10 years, the younger Russian generations worked hard, Europe is getting older and that they feel at home living and working in Russia. Turkey’s Ambassador to Moscow Kurtuluş Taşkent, in the address he gave at the ceremony held on the occasion of the launch of RUTID’s Moscow branch last December, said that the prejudices had been destroyed and replaced with friendship and cultural relations through the efforts of civil society. Turkish-Russian Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group Chairman Professor Nevzat Yalçıntaş was also at the dinner. He said 2007 would be observed as the year of Russian culture in Turkey, and 2008 as the year of Turkish culture in Russia.
As I said at the beginning, the unstable relations with the US and the EU cast a shadow over the growing and intensifying relations with Russia in a number of fields. For instance, the third meeting of Russia-Islamic Strategic Vision Group was held in Istanbul 15 days ago. The previous ones convened in Moscow and Kazan. One of the decisions made by the group established in pursuant to the order of Putin to ensure Russia’s accession to the OIC was to establish a commission to be mandated to reward the contributions to Muslim-Christian dialogue.
The Eurasia region, which includes Russia, heralds new horizons for Turkey, often cited as one of the most influential global actors in the 21st century. A strong Turkey in Eurasia will turn into a great asset throughout its journey to become an EU member. It could even be said that Turkey’s greater involvement in the Eurasian affairs will strengthen Turkey’s position vis-à-vis the US in bilateral relations. We should keep Russia’s importance in mind all the time.
