{"id":25015,"date":"2010-11-09T01:28:50","date_gmt":"2010-11-08T23:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=25015"},"modified":"2014-01-05T21:48:04","modified_gmt":"2014-01-05T19:48:04","slug":"mackay-turkey-has-the-ability-to-reach-out-to-tehran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/11\/09\/mackay-turkey-has-the-ability-to-reach-out-to-tehran\/","title":{"rendered":"MacKay: Turkey has the ability to reach out to Tehran"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Situated in a challenging neighborhood, Turkey has a wealth of experience to bring to NATO as it has the ability to reach out to Tehran and speak to the Muslim world, said. Canadian National Defense Minister Peter MacKay, who hosted the participants of the Halifax International Security Forum.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-25019\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/mackay.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"160\" \/>\u201cTurkey has very good credibility and connectivity to the West but also the ability to reach out to Tehran and speak to the Muslim world with clarity and perspective that we could gain from,\u201d he told Today\u2019s Zaman in an exclusive interview.<\/p>\n<p>Noting that he became good friends with Turkish President Abdullah G\u00fcl during their time as foreign ministers, MacKay said there is a \u201cstrength and kindred spirit\u201d between Canada and Turkey. \u201cWe recognize that we can fight when we have to, but we also have a skill set when it comes to diplomacy that allows us to talk with reason, to talk about difficult issues in a way that brings people together collaboratively,\u201d he said, and added that there is further potential for Canada and Turkey to work together in that regard.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding Iran, MacKay said Turkey\u2019s voice is \u201cvery relevant\u201d in the current discussion about Iran. As NATO leaders are soon going to meet in Lisbon to discuss the future of the organization and missile defense, there is debate over whether the organization will single out Iran as a threat, an idea that Turkey is opposed to.<\/p>\n<p>MacKay also said the missile defense system should be a NATO initiative rather than one by the US. \u201cIt\u2019s a European missile defense, after all. NATO is a more appropriate venue to support it,\u201d he said. The Canadian defense minister also mentioned that Turkey is influential among Muslim countries in the region and that those countries take their signals from the relationship that Turkey has with Israel. Therefore, he said, Turkey\u2019s normalized relations with Israel would be important.<\/p>\n<p>08 November 2010, Monday<\/p>\n<p>YONCA POYRAZ DO\u011eAN \u00a0HALIFAX<\/p>\n<p>ZAMAN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Situated in a challenging neighborhood, Turkey has a wealth of experience to bring to NATO as it has the ability to reach out to Tehran and speak to the Muslim world, said. Canadian National Defense Minister Peter MacKay, who hosted the participants of the Halifax International Security Forum. \u201cTurkey has very good credibility and connectivity [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":25019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[491,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canada-north-america-english","category-iran_"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25015","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=25015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}