Gul visits Standford University

President Abdullah Gul visited Stanford University and delivered an address entitled "Leading Change by Reform, Commitment and Innovation: Reflections on Leadership by the President of Turkey" as part of the second leg of his program in San Francisco. Upon his arrival at the university, Gul was welcomed by former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Rector John Etchemendy. In a speech on leadership at Stanford Graduate School of Business on Wednesday, Gul said, "In fact, in our lives failures are important because they leave us with difficult but viable choices. We draw lessons from our failures and work harder to succeed in our endeavors." Gul also criticized European politicians for failing to show leadership when they faced pressure rising from an economic crisis dominating the continent, saying that they bowed to radical political views instead of finding new ways to deal with hardships. Touching upon Middle Eastern leaders, Gul said dictators in Middle Eastern countries mistakenly believed that they would remain in power as long as they have their armies and intelligence agencies at hand. "It is today almost a universally accepted notion that the only source of legitimacy for a political leader is the people's choice. And every day and everywhere we are seeing increasing involvement of people in decision making," Gul said. Rice, a senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution and a faculty member at the business school, moderated questions from the audience after Gul's speech. Asked by Rice about the election in Egypt, Gul said Turkey was a Muslim country and continuing its reforms as part of its EU membership bid. "You will see that more Muslim states have democracy in the near future," Gul said, adding that Turkey's currently poor relations with Israel were a result of Tel Aviv's choices. Gul also visited the Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area on Thursday and met with Apple CEO Tim Cook at the Apple headquarters.