Davutoglu hails Turkish role in 21st century as 'wise country'

Turkey should take an influential role in the 21st century by predicting crises before they happen and producing alternative solutions rather than reacting to events, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a meeting of the country's ambassadors yesterday. "Turkey should be the front-runner on the list of wise countries in the international community," Davutoglu told the diplomats in his opening address to the weeklong meeting, saying their primary task is to carry the Turkish Republic forward into the future as a stronger, more influential country. Comparing diplomats to firefighters rushing to handle international emergencies, Davutoglu said this role would no longer suffice, as the modern era requires that crises be prevented before they break out. Emphasizing that a new era is ahead in which the international system is no longer static, Davutoglu added: "Our current role will no longer do. We must give dynamic reactions to a dynamic world." The meeting, on the theme of "Visionary Diplomacy: The Global and Regional Order from Turkey's Perspective," is the third gathering of the country's approximately 200 ambassadors since 2008. The second leg of the meeting will take place in the eastern Anatolian province of Erzurum, where Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will join the participants. Asked if Turkey reacted in the right way to events over the last year, Davutoglu said that it had, and that Turkey is among the top 10 countries that did the most to restructure the global order. Davutoglu also rebuffed political scientist Samuel P. Huntington's 1993 description of Turkey – along with Russia and Mexico – as a "torn country," saying: "We are not a torn country. We are a country in a torn world trying to unite broken pieces." He also reaffirmed that Turkey's march toward European Union membership would continue, but warned that it will not choose between the EU and Cyprus. Signaling that Ankara's efforts to sign visa-free travel and free trade deals with neighboring countries will also continue, Davutoglu said new high-level strategic cooperation councils – a mechanism for holding joint Cabinet meetings and striking cooperation deals – will be set up with Ukraine and Bulgaria, following ones with Greece, Russia, Syria and Iraq.