“If the ground of the world is changing, then we cannot stand fixed on that ground, but we will always stand firm on our principles,” Davutoğlu was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency late on Thursday. He listed those principles as peace, stability, welfare, security, Turkey’s policy of having “zero problems with neighbors” and its co-sponsorship of the UN-led Alliance of Civilizations initiative.
The minister’s remarks on debates and arguments questioning the appropriateness of Turkey’s foreign policy moves came at a ceremony held in İstanbul on Thursday evening where he received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service for his efforts in “advocating strengthening relations with Turkey’s hinterland and increasing its importance in the region and throughout the world.”
The public service award is given by the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars to individuals who have served with distinction in public life and have shown a special commitment to seeking out informed opinions and thoughtful views.
“We stand by whoever stands by global peace. We favor whoever stands by regional peace. We stand against whoever is taking steps that threaten peace. This is where we hold on in idealism,” Davutoğlu said. “In the last seven years, neither the president [Abdullah Gül] nor the prime minister [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] used irrational political language. Nobody can say we assumed an ideological or mono-cultural approach,” he said, in apparent reference to the government of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which has been in power since 2002.
Gül was the foreign minister of the AK Party government before being elected president in August 2007, and Davutoğlu, a well-regarded professor of political science and international relations, was the prime minister’s chief foreign policy adviser from 2002 until he was appointed to his current post in May 2009.
“In this regard, those who believe today that we turned towards the East should not forget that the EU [membership] negotiation process has started and most comprehensive reforms have been carried out during this period. Those who think today, ‘Where is our direction moving?’ should not forget that Turkey has made the greatest contribution [of all members] to NATO,” Davutoğlu said.
