G-8 Reflects Turkey’s Concerns
Turkey, as a co-chair of the ‘Democracy Assistance Dialogue’ (DAD) project that envisions providing support for democratization in the region by considering the conditions and internal dynamics of the individual countries, emphasized that the reforms should be ‘voluntary’, not ‘forced’. Turkey also reiterated that solving the Israel-Palestine conflict is key.
The joint declaration of the G-8 summit in the US, in which Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan participated in as ‘Democratic Partner’, points out that the Turkey’s and the European Union’s criteria required for the democratization process of the Middle East to begin have been mostly fulfilled. The declaration, entitled ‘Cooperation for a Common Future and Progress in the Middle East and North Africa’, gives place to the points stressed by Turkish government.
The G-8 declaration reads, "By fostering democracy and prosperity, people should be encouraged to adopt universal values. Diversities between the countries should be taken into consideration during the reform process." It was also agreed upon at the summit that the Middle East Quartet of U.S., U.K., U.N., and Russia would resume their mediation task in the region at the end of the month.
The multifaceted reform process calls for sharing experiences in regional democracy programs, improving these programs, giving opportunities to participant countries to conduct joint activities, reinforcing democratic institutions and processes, exchanging views among civil society organizations and other organizations working in the region, and forming social mechanisms.
