ADVICE FOR THE TURKMEN

Gul first talked about the Turkmen. He gave some advisory messages to the Turkmen in Iraq. Gul wanted the Turkmen to engage in politics, become more active and be more effective in the reconstruction of Iraq. Gul is in the opinion that it would be more effective for the Turkmen to have well educated and more weighty people engaged in politics. His advises are as follows: ‘take the Turks in Western Thrace as a sample. They became more effective in politics. They joined the administration and gave efforts for this purpose. The Turkmen in Iraq should take them as a sample. They should claim Iraq. They have sufficient number of people and adequate number of well-educated persons for that. Their level of education is considerably high. They can reflect it to their policies.’

Foreign Minister Gul emphasized that Turkey is not only concerned in northern Iraq but also in Iraq as a whole. Meanwhile, Gul gave also some messages to the Kurds in Iraq. ‘We will again protect the Kurds in the future as we did in the past,’ said Gul. Foreign Minister Gul reminded of Turkey’s act of bringing the seriously wounded to Ankara right after the recent attacks in Erbil and said, ‘The turn of mind of these attacks are the same as those terrorists who attacked us. We gave every kind of support concerning these issues and will continue to give more support. It will again be the Turks who will protect the Kurds. Some developments which seem to be in favor of the Kurds could harm them in the future. Therefore, Iraq’s integrity and stability should be preserved.’

Reminding of the summit to which the neighbors of Iraq will attend, Gul made the following evaluations: ‘I will attend this summit. We have made it in Damascus before. It was said that such meetings could not take place again after the summit in Damascus. It was also claimed that the summit couldn’t continue after the war and that the United Stated doesn’t want them to take place. The summits however do take place. These summits, initiated with the efforts of Turkey now will take place in Kuwait. We believe in its effectiveness. This year’s summit is special in the sense that Iraq will also attend the meetings. The developments in the region will be evaluated.’”