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Davutoğlu tears down walls between foreign, domestic policy
Noting that he has spoken with Interior Minister Beşir Atalay on the matter, Davutoğlu said: “We envision deploying diplomats who are assigned to neighboring countries to work with the governors offices in border provinces. For example, if a diplomat is going to be assigned to Aleppo, he will work in Hatay for 15 days first. Some district governors who will be assigned to border provinces will work at border consulates before they take office.
In this way we aim to overcome some of the walls between domestic policy and foreign policy. This is a piece of public diplomacy. We are going to work to enable these worlds to intermix as much as possible.”
Davutoğlu organized a press conference with diplomacy correspondents following the Second Ambassadors Evaluation Conference, held in Mardin over the weekend. Noting that the evaluation meeting in Mardin was the first meeting outside of Ankara for ministerial senior administration and many diplomats, Davutoğlu noted that there would be more meetings organized in provinces other than Ankara.
“Due to our jobs, many Turkish ambassadors and diplomats abroad, including myself, cannot visit Anatolia too much. From now on, we are going to pay more attention to our people and listen to their foreign policy perceptions,” he said.
 Some of the senior Turkish diplomats who traveled to Mardin with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on Saturday played cards at a coffeehouse. Ambassadors in Mardin streets After the conference, where Davutoğlu said the discourse used in Ankara should also be used in every part of Turkey, from Mardin and Rize to Muğla and Edirne and from Washington to Beijing and Tokyo, the attending ambassadors mingled with local people when they returned to the city. Ambassadors walked through the streets of Mardin and spoke with the people. The Turkish diplomats, who did not turn down tea and coffee invitations from the locals, asked the townsfolk how they were doing. Deputy undersecretaries visited a coffee shop while touring the old bazaar area and played a game of cards with Mardin youth. Namık Tan, the new Turkish ambassador to Washington, paired up with one of the teens and played against two deputy undersecretaries. With Ambassador Tan, originally from Mardin, the tough game was won by the Mardinli players. |
Davutoğlu explained that he met with Atalay to discuss ways to foster integration between the Ministry of the Interior and the Foreign Ministry. He noted that in order to improve the two ministries’ success in their fields, a temporary bureaucrat exchange program was being discussed. Davutoğlu said he envisioned sending diplomats who will be assigned to the border provinces of neighboring countries such as Mosul, Aleppo and Plovdiv to work at the governor’s office of the neighboring border province before taking office to enhance their understanding of relations between Turkey and neighboring countries at a local level. Noting that these projects are a piece of public diplomacy, the foreign minister said they want Turkish diplomats to be involved and active in every area. “There will be no more borders or walls. Of course this doesn’t mean the [geographic] border between the two countries will be removed. What we mean is that we are people that have ties that transcend the borders,” he said.
He also explained that as part of public diplomacy, the governors, consul generals and bureaucrats of neighboring countries would be invited to meetings in Turkey and that Turkish bureaucrats would listen to neighboring countries’ policies by going to border provinces such as Edirne, Van and Kars. Davutoğlu noted that it was Turkey’s responsibility to develop economic and cultural ties with neighboring countries.
Emphasizing that all segments in Turkey are valued, Davutoğlu explained that citizens from different religious and ethnic groups have been living together in Mardin for centuries and added, “They may have differences but it’s not possible to claim that they are disconnected from each other.” He also noted that everyone is equal before the law of citizenship and said, “We are going to continue this will and brotherhood forever.”
Noting that the Syriac and Assyrian population was declining in that part of the country, Davutoğlu said he believed that this cultural richness would be restored as long as a sustainable path was followed.
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