ORSAM’S VISIT TO THE LEAGUE OF ARAB STATES OFFICE IN TURKEY

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On January 20, 2011 Hasan Kanbolat, ORSAM Director; Habib Hürmüzlü, ORSAM Advisor and Bilgay Duman, ORSAM Middle East Expert paid a visit to the League of Arab States Office in Turkey, which inaugurated at embassy level on February 1, 2011 and whose headquarter is found in Ankara. During the visit, the ORSAM team talked to the Ambassador Muhammed El-Fatih Nasıri, who is the Representative of the League of Arab States Office in Turkey and who is known as one of the most experienced diplomats of the Arab world; and they bounced the ideas off each other.      

During the interview, Muhammed El-Fatih Nasıri shared his opinions related to the League of Arab States' international political vision and their political vision of Turkey. Muhammed El-Fatih Nasıri put an emphasis on the fact that the relations between the League of Arab States and Turkey have been growing increasingly stronger. Muhammed El-Fatih Nasıri indicated that the relations have gained acceleration with the Memorandum of Understanding that was signed between Turkey and the League of Arab States in 2004, when Abdullah Gül was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Saying that the Secretary General of the League of Arab States Amr Moussa is quite willing to develop their relationship with Turkey, Muhammed El-Fatih Nasıri stated that a delegation from the League of Arab States paid a visit to Turkey in 2007 for the first time. Muhammed El-Fatih Nasıri indicated that the Turkish-Arab Cooperation Forum was set up in accordance with the Framework Agreement for the Turkish-Arab Cooperation Forum that was signed on November 3, 2007 in İstanbul after the visit of the delegation. Muhamemd El-Fatih Nasıri also indicated that this formation aims at strengthening the cooperation between Turkey and the countries of the League of Arab States. He emphasized that the Turkish-Arab Cooperation Forum has organized 3 meetings at foreign ministry level up until today firstly on October 11, 2008 in İstanbul; on December 15, 2009 in Damascus, the capital of Syria; and then on June 11, 2010 in İstanbul. Muhammed El-Fatih Nasıri stated that an Arab-Turkish Parliamentary Dialogue was organized between the parliaments of the member countries of the League of Arab States and the Turkish parliament; and he added that this dialogue held two meetings, one of which was organized on August 8-9, 2010 in Damascus, and the other one on January 10, 2011 in Kuwait. Muhammed El-Fatih Nasıri said that in the second Meeting of the Turkish-Arab Parliamentary Dialogue, a decision was made on Turkey's participation in the 22-member and 4-observer parliament of the League of Arab States, in the capacity as watchdog country. Muhammed El-Fatih Nasıri also emphasized that during the meeting the issues of Cyprus and Blue Marmara were brought to agenda; and that all of the member states in the League of Arab States supported Turkey on these issues. Pointing out the great importance of this process launched with Turkey, Muhammed El-Fatih Nasıri stated that Turkey is their strategic partner.

Muhammed El-Fatih Nasıri also shared his opinions about Turkey's foreign policy related to the other regions. Muhammed El-Fatih Nasıri, who said that they support Turkey's EU process, indicated that they don't want Turkey to meet an accident on the European Union path. Muhamemd El-Fatih Nasıri stated that they understand Turkey's willing to establish good relations with all the neighbor countries by highlighting that this would make positive contributions to the regional stability and the international security.

Muhammed El-Fatih Nasıri of Moroccon origin, interpreted what happened in the North Africa particularly in Tunisia. Muhammed El-Fatih Nasıri underlined the importance of the events in Tunisia in terms of understanding the main perception of the people in the region. Saying that the real problem in Tunisia is not economic-based unlike the way it is seen, Muhammed El-Fatih Nasıri stated that the main problem in the region is related to the mental development of the people. Muhammed El-Fatih Nasıri also put an emphasis on the fact that the economic situation of Tunisia is better that the other countries in the region. Indicating that they closely follow the developments in the Central Asia as well, Muhammed El-Fatih Nasıri pointed out the great importance of the developments especially in Uzbekistan in terms of the region; and the necessity of following these developments.

In the conference room, principle decisions related to developing the cooperation between ORSAM and the League of Arab States Office in Turkey were taken; and developing the relations was emphasized.