Madeleine Albright:

“Turkey is a modern Islamic country, a model for both Middle East and Mid-Asia and it will play an important role also in the future.”

Madeleine Albright, the foreign affairs minister during the second period of Clinton, the former US president, was in Istanbul in October 31, 2003. Albright, who gave a lecture in Çırağan Palace, noted “I face difficulty to understand why Iraq War is being employed now” and described Turkey as a “model country”.

Before the lecture, Dr. Zeynel Abidin ERDEM, the Chairman of Turkish American Businessmen Association, met Madeleine Albright, the former US Foreign Affairs Minister, in a breakfast meeting organized with participation of prominent Turkish businessmen and NGO chairmans.

Madeleine Albright gave a lecture in Istanbul as the guest of Garanti Bank. Albright recalled that she first came to Turkey following the earthquake in 1999 and expressed her pleasure to come again and to be in the historical city of Istanbul.

Albright also answered written question from the participants and replied a question regarding what should the US do differently regarding Iraq as follows :

“I understand the reason of this war. However, I face difficulty to solve the reason why this war occured now. Because, I believe that we should focus on Afghanistan more. Of course, if an attack occured in your country and 3 thousand people died due to this attack, you can’t stay quiet. However, peace forces in Afghanistan should have been reinforced more and Karzai should have been achieved a more powerful status. Occurence of war masters should have been prevented. We do not find the things performed in Afghanistan sufficient. Because we do not know about their accuracy, intelligence obtained must be assessed as good as possible. In my opinion, we should have acted accepting that Saddam Hüseyin is a horrible dictator. We should have directed the restrictions in Iraq toward the regime not toward the people. In my opinion, we should have never left our attention from Afghanistan.”

Turkey is a model country

Turkey is a modern Islamic country, a model for both Middle East and Mid-Asia and it will play an important role also in the future. Turkey is the ideal country to collaborate in Iraq, Iran and the Middle East. European Union membership of Turkey is of great importance. The EU evaluates past record of Turkey based on its criteria, however, in my opinion, current performance should be evaluated. Turkey should maintain its image of reliable ally.