Countries of This Region Should be Assertive, Turkish Foreign Minister

The Turkish minister of foreign affairs said on Thursday that any nation living in Turkey's region should be assertive, otherwise it could not survive.

Speaking at a debate at the Turkish parliament on his ministry's budget for the year 2011, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said, "Nations living in this region should be assertive, otherwise they shall face destruction".

Davutoglu said Turkey also set assertive goals in its foreign policy, but acted with a realistic manner while working on the field.

Pointing to Turkey's remarkable progress in foreign policy, Davutoglu said Turkey's region needed a great actor for new developments, adding his country could be that actor.

Commenting on the 550 lawsuits filed against Turkey at the European Court of Human Rights, Davutoglu said such lawsuits had not been filed due to the negligence of the Turkish government or ministry of foreign affairs, but they stemmed from the problems with Turkish judiciary system's functioning.

"Our judiciary system should entirely go through a reform process," the minister said.

Regarding Israel's attack on a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla in May, Davutoglu said," Apology and compensation... We are following the developments on this issue and we will not give up until we achieve these goals".

Minister Davutoglu also commented on Turkey's visa regime with European countries.

Noting that the Turkish government had been demanding facilitation of visa procedures since 2004 and had asked for accession to Schengen visa regime last year, Davutoglu said biometric passports, readmission agreement and integrated border management were requested from Turkey for participation in Schengen regime.

Davutoglu said biometric passports and the readmission agreement were ready, while studies on integrated border management continued.

Sharing his views on borders as well, Davutoglu described all the borders in Turkey's region as "artificial".

"We should render borders meaningless by proceeding to structures with wider scales instead of changing the map by creating smaller units," the minister said.

Davutoglu noted that just like in the European Union, there should not be any borders in the Balkans and Middle East.

"Germany and France integrated with their environs and they developed. We will also not have clashes with the countries around us. Hopefully, we will integrate with all the friendly and relative communities surrounding us on the 100th anniversary of our republic," Davutoglu said.