Turkey could be a mentor for least developed countries

According to the deputy prime minister of Somalia, Turkey can play a mentor role as 'least developed countries need a guide, a mentor, a patron that speaks on their behalf and Turkey is taking that role.' The least developed countries need a mentor and Turkey could play that role, a Somali official who attended the U.N. Conference of Least Developed Countries in Istanbul said on Tuesday. “Least developed countries need a guide, a mentor, a patron that speaks on their behalf. Turkey is taking that role,” Dr. Abdiweli Ali, deputy prime minister of Somalia, told the Hurriyet Daily News. Assessing the role of Turkey, which stepped up to the plate to monitor the next action plan of the U.N. for the least developed countries, Ali said, “Turkey is hosting this conference. It does a great job and we appreciate it all.” Asked about the President Abdullah Gul’s remarks on the opening speech of the conference on Monday, saying, “Istanbul will then be the place where the first heartbeats of a new and fair world order are heard” the Somali deputy prime minister said he was already deserving that role. “Hopefully Turkey is playing a role that it appropriately deserved to take and it is taking that,” he added. Ali stressed both the geo-strategic role of and historical assets of Turkey, which was responding to a necessity. “I am a great admirer of Turkey and admirer of Ottoman civilization. Turkey is strategically located between South and the North, between Asia and Europe. We think Turkey lays a service to fill that gap,” he said.