{"id":2471,"date":"2008-08-12T23:44:34","date_gmt":"2008-08-12T20:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=2471"},"modified":"2012-08-05T18:07:27","modified_gmt":"2012-08-05T15:07:27","slug":"iraq-and-turkey-regional-cooperation-will-change-the-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2008\/08\/12\/iraq-and-turkey-regional-cooperation-will-change-the-region\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq and Turkey: Regional cooperation will change the region"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Agustos 12, 2008 tarihli bir TDN makalesi: Ilginize<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tuesday, August 12, 2008<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

While Iraq is in great pain because our eastern neighbor has decided to follow Saddam\u2019s path to nihilism, our northern neighbor extends a hopeful hand of friendship, trust and promising prosperity<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Hussain SINJARI<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0The last visit by a Turkish PM to our country was in 1990. Eighteen years later, a different Turkish PM comes to Baghdad. Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan is Islamic yet secular, a modern and open-minded leader who considers the sacred texts to be good for worshipping, more of cultural or spiritual values rather than to do with strategy, economics or the administration of the state. Moreover,\u00a0he and his party do not interfere in the lifestyle of the people or their choices of belief. He and his party respect the individual\u00a0freedoms of women and men.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0The government of our country did very well when it received our guest and his delegation in the most welcoming way Baghdad has ever seen so far. This visit made history when both sides signed \u0093The Iraqi-Turkish High Strategic Cooperation Counci,\u0094 which is due to meet three times a year chaired by both PMs. The sectors of the cooperation are vitally important and include energy, military industry, security and politics.<\/span><\/div>\n

A historic visit:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0We know this historic visit was the fruit of good efforts of both President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nori al Maliki. It came after the obvious success on the ground of the latest military\/security operations in different places in\u00a0Basrah, Baghdad, Ramadi, Mosul and elsewhere where criminal gangs used to terrorize the civilians.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0The visit of Erdo\u011fan could not possibly take place without this security success. The writer of this article is a witness to this improvement through a number of tours and walks during the day and night in Baghdad. In Abu Nawas, the famous Baghdadi avenue with cafes and restaurants on the bank of the River Tigris, universally known for its \u0093mesguf,\u0094 or grilled fish, I was very surprised to see hundreds of families out there. A private security company, The Sandi Group, is in charge of the security of the place, checking cars, watching for terrorists and keeping order.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0Turkey is a semi-European country with its democratically elected parliament; free, independent\u00a0and critical media; active and genuine civil society organizations; and the progress it has made in the fields of agriculture, industry, education, tourism or services. All of this and more shall help to create a unique regional cooperation between Turkey and our country, which has the largest oil reserve in the world and the best human resources in the Middle East. Yet, due to the long decades of dictatorship under which we wasted our national wealth on armaments, the liberation of Palestine, lies of propaganda and other destructive practices, our country is almost a wasteland. This is a sad\u00a0reality but must be changed. To change it we need this kind of strategic regional cooperation to put energies together to rebuild and reconstruct.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0The Kurdish element:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0Along the Iraqi-Turkish border, the Kurdish people live. This existence could be of a great help and serve as \u0093the bridge\u0094 between Turkey and Iraq.\u00a0The armed insurgency must come to an end and people must follow civilized practices and methods to express themselves, demand rights and demonstrate grievances.\u00a0 The \u0093State\u0094 is not innocent and policies must be revised. And people listened to and cared for.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0The Turkomen in Iraq and Arabs in Turkey are other examples that diversity could and should be an element for strength and wealth.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0While Iraq is in great pain because our eastern neighbor has decided to follow Saddam’s path to nihilism, our northern neighbor extends a hopeful hand of friendship, trust and promising prosperity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Basrah-Istanbul railway system:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0Here I come up with my proposal to both governments of Iraq and Turkey: Put as a top priority to run a most technologically modern and monumental railway between Basrah and Istanbul. And then a very modern highway for transport trucks and personal cars to connect Basrah to Istanbul. These two giant projects will attract large companies to invest while small businesses will flourish along the rail and the highway.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0In this way, Iraq will be linked to Europe via Istanbul and Turkey will be linked to the Gulf via Basrah.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0One does not need more than a glance to realize what a creation of wealth this should bring to the people of the two countries and for beyond — the Gulf and Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0In our globalized world we need more\u00a0\u0093tolerancy diplomacy.\u0094 This new approach and concept means to find out common grounds according to mutual benefits regardless of differences in faiths, ideologies, ethnic or linguistic backgrounds. Iraq and Turkey and other states should explore the benefits of the acceptance of each other and recognition of each other’s rights. This is an application of the \u0093The Turkish-Iraqi High Strategic Cooperation\u0094 to set an example for many others who are crippled by the evils of ideology. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0Hussain Sinjari is an Iraqi commentator based in Baghdad and the president of Tolerancy International. (www.tolerancy.org)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
<\/div>\n

\u00a9 2005 Dogan Daily News Inc. www.turkishdailynews.com.tr<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Agustos 12, 2008 tarihli bir TDN makalesi: Ilginize \u00a0 Tuesday, August 12, 2008 While Iraq is in great pain because our eastern neighbor has decided to follow Saddam\u2019s path to nihilism, our northern neighbor extends a hopeful hand of friendship, trust and promising prosperity Hussain SINJARI \u00a0\u00a0The last visit by a Turkish PM to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":32532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,43],"tags":[247,1280],"class_list":["post-2471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran_","category-iraq","tag-kurdish-hizbullah","tag-pkk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}