Let me express my own feelings. I felt that Turkey’s power is too great to be evaluated on the basis of a cross-border operation.In our day, neither Turkey nor other countries have local problems. We are living in a world where local habits have expanded globally. From now on, we should trust ourselves and our values and balance our stance with our greatness. We should first of all believe in this. We should smarten up and revise our point of views, political positions and styles in accordance with this belief. Our democracy, legal system, art, media, political structure and above all, mentality should be organized, rehabilitated and developed in line with the principle of being a great country. If the hands of irreconcilable enemies are joined in our territory and in our hands, then we should realize the fact that we should not lose time dealing with artificial agendas and a vicious cycle of unproductive conflicts. If our country forms a natural land bridge between Europe and Asia thanks to the transformation of historical roads into highways and the use of ancient railways by high-speed trains, and if our country is the destination of energy routes, then we should appreciate the significance of our unique position.
The Iraq neighbors’ conference, which was attended by the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Dr. Abdelouahed Belkeziz and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, was held in İstanbul two weeks ago. Syrian President Bashar al-Asad, Saudi King Abdullah, Israeli President Peres, Palestinian leader Abbas, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki paid visits to Turkey on various occasions. The harmony between Çankaya palace and the government are carrying Turkey to a bright future. If President Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan get along well with each other and if differences between the state and the government are eliminated, this will be to Turkey’s advantage.
The fact that a president features on the national agenda with news stories that “he stopped at a red light” and “he did his shopping himself in a supermarket” is heart-warming in the name of modesty. But, saving Çankaya palace from becoming a center of objection and making the Turkish people feel relieved is much better. Now it is time to strengthen Turkey, which has taken significant steps to grow stronger in the international arena with the rule of law. It is time to open new prospects for Turkish democracy through vast tolerance and real democracy. Though some circles attempt to avert this initiative under the cloak of threats posed by the Democratic Society Party (DTP), we should never make concessions with our democratic decency. We should adopt a definite position against accreditation applications in the press and criticize bureaucratic discrimination in the name of our objective of becoming a great country, but should never allow internal or external powers to damage national institutions that keep strengthening our country each day. We should be aware that applications which are not in line with democracy will cause us embarrassment.
Turkey is a great country. Turkey is the cornerstone of world peace. It has an indispensable role in inter-civilization dialogue. We pioneer countries will lift up democracy in the new millennium, during which each country will be represented through its own values. The era of hopeless, thick-headed and faithless people who claim that “Turkey will not be successful in any field” has come to an end. It is finally the era of hopeful people who see this country as a big family, consider differences as richness and respect the opinions of other people. And my friend, if hands unite in our hands, this means the future belongs to us.
