Competing interests in nation’s balance
By Rachelle G. Cohen
Today in a southern corner of Turkey eight refugee camps are home to some 25,000 Syrians who have fled the violence that has already killed more than 9,000 of their countrymen.
Some 300 United Nations observers have not been able to stop the assaults ordered by Bashar Assad on his own people. And in the past month alone an estimated 4,000 Syrians have crossed into Turkey.
“We have an open door policy for every Syrian who has escaped,” said Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan during a recent address at Tufts’ Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
If geography is destiny then Turkey was indeed destined to play a critical role in the region, to become a bridge between East and West, between Europe and Asia and with a growing role in North Africa as well.
“We fight against international terrorism,” Babacan emphasized. “We always act in accord with our ideals, our values, our principles.”
And those values include a respect for human rights and the rule of law, he insists.
There are those within Turkey who might dispute that — press freedoms can be, well, problematic. But then in the context of regional politics, Turkey may fall short of ideal, but well ahead of the local curve.
“We do what we can to promote positive change in line with our common values, especially among our neighbors,” he added.
It surely hasn’t been easy, even as Turkey tries to maintain its own precarious balance between Islam and secularism — determined to show the two can co-exist, trying to provide an example for the nascent democracies in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya.
via Arab Spring’s model is Turkey – BostonHerald.com.
more :
Leave a Reply