New foreign minister

New foreign minister to seek greater regional role for Turkey



Turkey's new foreign minister said on Saturdaythat he wanted the nation to play a bigger role in the Middle East and the Balkans but that relations with the West would continue to be the main foreign policy focus.

Middle East expert Ahmet Davutoğlu was appointed Turkey's new foreign minister on Friday in the largest Cabinet change since the Justice and Development (AK Party) was first swept to power in 2002.

Davutoğlu, a respected diplomat who expanded Turkey's foreign policy beyond its traditional Western-orientated focus, takes charge as the country seeks to improve regional security, from Armenia to Iraq and Iran. Taking office on Saturday from Ali Babacan, who was named the new deputy prime minister in charge of the economy, Davutoğlu said Turkey now had a stronger foreign policy vision toward the Middle East, the Balkans and the Caucasus region. "It has to take on the role of an order-instituting country in all these regions," Davutoğlu said. "Turkey is no longer a country which only reacts to crises, but notices the crises before their emergence and intervenes in the crises effectively, and gives shape to the order of its surrounding region."

Davutoğlu, who has assumed an active role in NATO member Turkey's Middle East mediation efforts between Israel and Arab countries and in solving conflicts in the neighboring Caucasus, said relations with the West would remain Turkey's main focus. "The European Union and NATO are the most important pillars of the policy of setting a balance between security and freedom," he said.

Turkey began EU membership negotiations in 2005, but progress has since largely ground to a halt because of disagreements over the divided island of Cyprus and strong opposition in some members like France and Austria.


03 May 2009, Sunday
TODAY'S ZAMAN WITH WIRES İSTANBUL