Davutoğlu suggests new paradigm in Turkish-Egyptian relations

Davutoğlu’s visit to Egypt on Tuesday and Wednesday had two areas of focus: bilateral relations within the framework of strategic dialogue, and the Arab League ministerial meeting. Davutoğlu frequently highlighted the importance of both.

According to him, too much time has been wasted on the Middle East peace process, and the decisions by the Arab League will be very important for the future of the region.

Within this framework he met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, and Omar Suleiman, the head of intelligence service and minister without portfolio. Davutoğlu had opportunities to address prominent Egyptian intellectuals including former Secretary-General of the United Nations Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Egyptian journalists and students at the American University in Cairo. He was also quite pleased to inaugurate the Yunus Emre Cultural Center in Cairo.

He invited a small group of Turkish journalists to cover his visit, including Sunday’s Zaman. The energetic foreign minister started to talk about the importance of Turkish-Egyptian relations on the plane en route to Sharm El Sheikh for a meeting with President Mubarak:

“The most influential triangle in our region is Turkey-Iran-Egypt. Relations between Iran and Egypt are not good, but we have relations with both of them. We are re-establishing the balance in the region,” he told journalists on the plane.

But as he frequently underlined in all of his speeches in Egypt, he does not mean competing against, counterbalancing or being skeptical about each other, but just the opposite -- maximum cooperation.

Especially in his speeches to Egyptian intellectuals and journalists, Davutoğlu frequently highlighted the importance of cooperation for a better future.

“In the region we are expending our energy to offset each other, but if we were cooperating, the situation would be totally different,” he said, adding that “this might be a utopia for you, but imagine that for the next 20 years we have stability in the region without any tension. Then we would be richer than any other emerging powers.”

He stated that countries cannot change their history and geography but can reinterpret and rediscover them and that it is time for the countries in the Middle East to do it and leave the Cold War mentality behind:

“If you concentrate on risks and imaginary threats, you will always see danger. We are trying to eliminate these imaginary risks and reintegrate the region. Of course, there are risks, but our perception should not be based on crises but on being vision oriented,” he said.

Davutoğlu added that this vision has four principles: economic interdependence, a common security system, high-level strategic dialogue and the coexistence of multicultural multi-religious life.

Davutoğlu, both in his bilateral meetings and in his speeches to Egyptian intellectuals and journalists, underlined that economic relations between Egypt and Turkey are developing, with trade volume reaching $3 billion and Turkish investments in Egypt at around $1 billion, and that both are increasing.

As a sign of the importance of cultural relations, Davutoğlu inaugurated the Yunus Emre Cultural Center in Cairo and stated that no matter how much diplomatic relations develop, if they are not supported by cultural relationships the relations will not be sustainable.

“We consider Cairo the brain of the Arab world. We are hoping that Turkish and Egyptian intellectuals will meet at this cultural center, which should be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to give people a place to meet for cultural talks and to exchange ideas,” he said.

Davutoğlu also frequently drew attention to the rising powers of the world and the foreign influence in the region but highlighted that the region’s destiny is in the hands of the people and the leaders of the region.

According to him if the countries of the region are not cooperating in a way that will bring prosperity, it is inevitable that the region will turn into a scene of the struggle among rising powers.

“The region belongs to us. We should not blame others, their colonialism and their imperialism. We should take our destiny into our own hands, and for this we need full cooperation and regional integration. I don’t mean that we will not have problems, but we can develop our relations in a way that they will not produce problems but a suitable atmosphere to solve them. Reintegration is the most important issue for us. The foundation for it is in our history and geography,” he says, adding that “in our region, will we compete and fight with each other so all these powers will be richer and richer by controlling our resources and manpower, or will we combine our assets in order to bring back the golden era, which produced many important world civilizations.”