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change liveses change organizations change organization change the world I'm honored to be on this historic and exceedingly beautiful campus indeed over the span of more than 120 years the name of Stanford has become synomous with Innovation at
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quality it has become the symbol of Global Leadership in so many areas pionering scientific research conducted here has contributed to the development of many technological inventions from microchip to internet you know better than I that
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they have all profoundly changed our life I'm sure that it's a matter of Pride for Stanford that many of the leading global technology firms from Google to yaho Cisco system and hit packet were begun with ideas and research SP here at
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Stanford so this University is a cradle of C creative destruction and an engine of globalization it is one of the reasons why the United States has been and probably long will be a global leader in Innovation Science and
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Technology Stanford has never ceased seeking the better it has always been able to adapt to the changes in our world as much as it shape the change for that reason it's a great honor to address an institution that leads constructive Global change and
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nurtures the leaders of change dear guests today I was asked to speak about leadership by sharing my experience with you I'm pretty sure as the members of The Graduate of the business school you are very much familiar with the traits
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of a leader but I will say this whoever we are today is the result of a many choices that we made through our lives the failures we suffered the chances we had the talents we obtained at Birth and the skills we develop during our life's
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journey but sometimes Destiny works out irrespective of what we are made of for instance I was born in town named after Julius Caesar called kaiseri on the 29th of October which in Turkey is known as a republic day when we celebrate the fing of the
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Turkish Republic the 29th of October is for us but the Fourth of July is for the Americans kaiseri is renowned for its entrepreneurs in this sense kaiseri has been the lon stand of Turkish rep rship so it was a well established
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tradition in Kaiser for families to recuit the most intelligent and talented children for their business there has long been a practice in kaiseri that when a boy had finished Primary School families would test his business skills before sending him to
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secondary at High School they usually put him in a friends shop to see how he might behave whether he is active and clever or if he's shy and unassertive if the boy appears to be capable the parents will most often Engage The Boy in business life right
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away if the boy is not very good in marketing they send him to further schooling I remember I was tested two my grandfather's shop was very cowed in those years and even on the street there were crows there I had to sell bottle of
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soda in the bucket fi with eyes one day my uncle came by grandfather's shop to examine my business skills he took a bottle of soda open it and shouted loudly I cold soda I cold soda makes all 32 te play the vi that is the saying it was an
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effective marketing strategy in those days with his powerful voice my uncle got the attention of the people around the store and sold many sodas on the spot then he forced me to do the same but I was too shy to shut like him and F miserably in selling the
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sodas of course that was the end of my business [Laughter] career in that very failure would not have happened that day most probably I not be the president of the Turkish Republic today of course had I been successful in selling sodas I
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would be much richer now a lot a lot like most of my fellow Kiser businessmen so the leadership sometimes comes out of failure in fact in our lives failures are important because they de us with difficult but viable choices we draw lessons from our
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failures and work hard hard to succeed in our endover for my part I studied hard in school since I knew that education was the most efficient enabler for me to achieve a better life distinguished guests good leaders must be sure also
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possess god-given traits however I believe in most cases leadership is a nurtured phenomenon rather than a gift of nature effective leaders must love to learn change and expand if you are not learning maturing changing or expanding then you cannot
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expect the people to believe in you and follow you in my life I always believe that there is room for learning change and Innovation I personally learned a lot when I work at the Islamic Development Bank for 8 years in jet Saudi Arabia where I was able to get
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accustomed to socioeconomic problems and the potential of the Islamic world that experience had a huge impact on my political makeup and vision later on unexpectedly and to a certain extent reluctantly I found myself in itics when
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I was convinced to run for MP seat from my hometown Kiser in 1991 as a member of parliament I served as the Council of Europe parliamentary assembly for almost a decade through that experience I learned and dged the fundamentals of democratic
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politics and European values which are widely accepted Universal RS for democracy human rights and the rule of law that again had an enormous effect on my political mindset and vision today I'm sure you all must know the
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saying to change the world begin with yourselves the unprecedented velocity of change has made one think and absolute priority for today's decision makers the ability to adopt to this Dynamic global system today as political leaders we are
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faced with infinitely complex challenges with global ramifications and in the face of today's fluid dynamics of global order the role of leaders has gained equal and particular importance indeed it is only through strong and Regional leaders ship
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that we can sail through these uncharted waters in other words this area is one that needs leaders too leaders who can understand the transformation taking place and quickly adapt to the fast changing environment leaders must also be
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fulfilled by envisioning and inspiring destinations and by charting and traving the course to get there this requires imagination and a broad Vision after all leadership is all about Vision a leader should create Vision Express his vision and pursue his vision
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until he drives it to accomplishment most importantly he has to get others engaged in his vision supporting his vision and r ring around his vision on the other hand a leader should not always seek the easy and well wor
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path ahead he or she should be ready to go a new Direction and leave a trail behind it is obvious that the world is better off with leaders who have more dreams and fever nightmares among others Martin Luther King's dream in the midst of social
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nightmares help make America what it is today distinguished guests a leader must also be in full harmony with the people who follow him and be capable of responding to their aspirations in fact for the first time in human history more than half of the
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nations are governed by democratic government governments therefore it today almost a universally accepted notion that the only source of legitimacy for a political leader is the People's Choice and every day and everywhere we
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are seeing increasing involvement of people in decision making we saw this in tare in Egypt as well as among the wall demonstrators in New York this is the age of people empowerment of course this is a good thing for democracy and in fact
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unavoidable given its natural course however there's a paradox here under increasing public pressure the leaders might become reluctant to take bold decisions for the common good which may not always be popular this point is particularly
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pertinent at times of economic difficulties and in the midst of deep rooted political conflicts the current situation in Europe is a telling example of how the lack of visionary leadership could at worsely affected lives of millions first Europe's leaders failed
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to the to see the looming economic problems and to take bold steps in addressing them good leadership Necessities fixing the roof when the sun is still shining consequently the limitation of the European leaders in taking necessary
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decisions did bring about the financial calamities they currently face and now confronted with a severe crisis there are growing Tendencies across Europe to become more introverted and to give into the rise of extremist political
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groups indeed in recent months we have witnessed in one after another election for right parties gaining strength and even worse their ideologies and Views are more and more becoming part of the mainstream this is certainly not a good
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example of leadership but Petty politics at its work first another area where we witness a tragic failure of leadership is in the Middle East where leaders have long been out of touch with their people indeed the leaders of the countries like
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Tunisia Libya Egypt Yemen and Syria have been utterly unable to see the growing Global forces driven by the Innovations nurtured here at this University at the Silicon Valley innovation in Communications and social media allow everyone to learn
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about what's happening elsewhere in the world and makes comparisons in fact this is perhaps one of the greatest contributions Stanford has made enabling the transformation of Freedom democracy and development in the world because of your Innovations no regime
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today has the luxury to govern its people behind iron curtains these dictators long thought they could stay in power as long as their armies and intelligency were strong even when citizens Revolt started these leaders contined to follow the
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Apparently Universal Manual of dictators and trying to rest the People by sheer force in my last letter to President Assad of Syria last year in August when the events could be handled at a relatively low humanitarian cost I told him very
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clearly that people in the streets will not go away by ignorance or repression I said that it's time to show leadership and to lead the change by undertaking the necessary reforms to address the legitimate expiration of the people
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before it is too late Unfortunately today scores of people dying in Syria near nearly every day and we see that everything is really too late and they are doing something they are the too little distinguish guests another important aspect of leadership
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is of course telling the truth at the right time in the right place no matter how inconvenient the truth is when I ran for my party's leadership in the year 2000 I had to tell my fellow party members that the way we were conducting
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politics was anachronistic and irrelevant Panic this truth was extremely risky at that time when the fing leader openly favored my rival and it was the party tradition not to challenge the leaders choices although I Was Defeated at the
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party convention by a slight margin I was able to get my message across first to party constituents and delegates and then to the large Society in Turkey in fact that reform and Innovation there strategy and narrative play the ground work for the
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establishment of the justice and development party we called the AK party in 2001 at International level I dare to tell similar truth to my fellow colleagues from the Islamic world as early as 2003 I must have made a strong appeal to
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the leaders of the organization of Islamic cooperation countries at the meeting in tan I stress to them that they must all undertake the necessary reforms in order to be compatible with the universal Democratic Values I also warned them of the dire
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consequences of failing to do so so for me theab Spring was not a surprise at all but just the replay of history and the long and and the and the logical expression of the ultimate aspiration of the human beings ladies and
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gentlemen a good leader has to be patient and prudent however sometimes a leader must take risks and my own test with taking risk of course in foreign relations came especially when I visited yavan the capital of Armenia upon the invitation of the Armenian
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president ostensively the invitation was to attend a football match with the president but it was much more than that for the leaders of two neighborhood Nations that had profound disagreements about our shared history it was a risky move for
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Democratic the PO domestic political consideration and it might have been very risky for foreign policy implication as well I went to yavan marking the first ever visit of a Turkish president to Armenia the reward I was expecting from
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this gesture was a maning of fces between our two Nations I still pursue this hope our mutual presidential visits will continue to be a symbol of Hope for the normalization of Turkish and Armenian relations risky as it was I did the
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right thing by visiting yavan which brings to mind something the Peter draer once said management is doing things right leadership is doing the right things if it is necessary a good leader should also be able to make difficult decisions and painful
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concessions you may well remember that all the start at the start of the World War I Winston Churchill told the British people that he promised nothing but blood toil tears and sweat in the face of exential threat to his country in the
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meantime a good leader should never lose sight of being a dealer in Hope for the people no matter how desperate the circumstances are by with his starting Wars and sto resolve churches successfully right his people to defend their country and the
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Free World the hope he gave to his citizens was certainly a vital ingredients of their survival Victory and Honor when I took the position of prime minister in Turkey in 2002 we faced enormous challenges we were at the head of an economic
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crisis that started in the year 20 1 when we lost onethird of our national income overnight there was also a looming war in Iraq and we were at the Crossroad of negotiations on Cyprus and turkey's EU membership prospects all those problems required us
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to make difficult decisions and significant compromises all those years we worked together with karise and she know knows very well those difficult years and dates being aware of that leader must have a plan to materialize his vision I
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laid down a comprehensive long-term plan covering all policy measures in the judicial economic and political domains in this plan I did not fall into trap of satisfying shortterm populist demand instead I focused on the long-term
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interest of the nations with these understanding the AK party governments strictly implemented our plan and fortunately all those difficult Choice paid off thanks to those measures for instance despite the economic crisis across Europe turkey stands out as the
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second fastest growing economy in the world right after China and if Turkish democracy somehow functions as a source of inspiration for people in the Middle East again this was because of the reforms taken by the governments since
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2002 when we were taking these painful measures at the time we were also giving hope to our nation for achieving better democracy a well functioning market economy and an active and assertive foreign policy on all front as a result of these reforms
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turkey today is more pluralistic inclusive and tolerant than ever before that said we are also aware that there is room for further Improvement in the field of personal freedoms as a such we are under no such illusion that our
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task is improving our democracy is over a leader must have a fair and realistic assessment about the shortcomings of his country or organization as the president of Turkey I know very well that we still have a long way to go in broadening the
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Liberties and strengthening the civilian pillars of our democ rcy but there is widespread agreement across the Spectrum in turkey that we must further develop our Democratic standards towards that end we are now in the process of
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drafting a new constitution with the active participation of all political parties NOS professional associations universities think tanks intellectuals as well as ordinary citizens this incl inclusive approach to Constitution writing is also important
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for the development of a culture of compromise which I believe is the backbone of maturing democracy par to turkey's profound political transformation we have enacted across the board economic reforms with tight Financial
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discipline these were very tough and not highly popular choices at the time thanks to these structural reforms the resilience of the Turkish economy has now been boosted against major external shocks as a result turkey has become the
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16th largest economy in the world with a GDP of more than1 trillion in US Dollars turkey's development policy is a qu attentive elements too as we all know science technology and Innovation are essential elements for Nations that Aspire for a better
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future in this regard turkey has made great strides in recent years towards becoming a knowledge-based economy research and development expenditures have increased threefold in the past 10 years this growth rate in r& the expenditures has almost been four
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times higher than the oecd and eu27 averages during the same period the number of Turkish International patent applications has increased by more than 300% moreover the ratio of Internet users is one of the highest in the
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region and yet fastest growing in the world turkey has the fourth largest number of Facebook users globally for instance last but not least we now have 173 universities in Turkey 89 of them have opened since 2006 in a nutshell these statistics
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suggest that we have been heavily investing in education Science and Technology to raise the Future Leaders of turkey we are undergoing nothing less than a profound transformation distinguish guests there is another important aspect of the
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leadership not individual leadership but Collective leadership institutionalized leadership leadership does not necessarily depend on a single person or a single country if we can insize institutionalize leadership then we will
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more likely have better Global governance in fact today the State of Affairs of the International System is rather problematic there's a growing consensus that we now need to rethink Global governance structures to address new risks such as widening income
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disparity among nations and poverty the apparent weakness of our Global Financial architecture and cultural polarization besides no Nation however self-sufficient or strong it may be is capable of coping with the complexity of today's world
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alone in such an environment uniter actions or remedies are providing to be not only less and less effective but also increasingly [Music] anachronistic effective Global governance requires institutional Collective leadership through reformed
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organizations such as the UN and G20 in today's globalizing world where fastpaced change is engulfing the entire community of Nations from every conable direction leadership is not an easy task ladies and gentlemen dear students turkey will not relent in
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trying to lead our own nation and others as POS as positively as we can as the leader of dynamic country whose experience is transforming itself is being watched closely by a wide audience I myself also feel the responsibility to lead by
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example therefore I will continue to press both at home and abroad for a more pluralistic and inclusive democracy more sustainable development more collective security and more Intercultural and interreligious tolerance as someone who came out of a
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mediumsized Anatolian Town my whole life has been a constant struggle seeking a better life and world for my fellow countrymen there have been times when it was difficult even to stay AF flat but I always followed my hopes and dreams and
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never fell in dispay so far in my speech I have characterized the era we are going through as one of change Innovation commitment cooperation people's empowerment and Leadership throughout all my life these were precisely the Notions and
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principles that guided me too I have always been attracted to my conservative and Traditional Values nevertheless my cultural identity and those conservative values did not inhibit me from adapting to every changing realities of the
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world I have tried to be modest tolerant and humble in my political discourse and PID utmost attention to adopting a constructive political language I have been prudent patient perseverant and pragmatic in most of my
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professional political and diplomatic dealings but on the essential matters when my principles clash with pragmatic opportunism my instinct always goes with the principles and I will fight for principles to the end in that regard I was put to test
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when I ran for the presidential office despite all the unfair and artificial pressure inflicted up on me me to decline my nomination I pursued my vision and sided with my principles speaking from personal experience all I can leave with you
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today is the strong but simply advice simple advice that you never shy away from taking responsibility and that you lead when you can graduating from Stanford you will always be equipped with the necessary tools to succeed As Leaders Stanford graduates before you
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have done so much to change the world however we expect more from you in finding solution to Global problems such as poverty global warming energy security and biological security I firmly believe that with your outstanding leadership qual qual
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qualities and culture of innovative entrepreneurship you will make an enormous difference in the resolution of these Global problems too again thank you for the invitation to be here and I wish all you the best thank you very
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much thank you coni for coming here thank you very much thank you Mr President if you'll join me yes well thank you very much for that wonderful address about leadership and uh you have given us both many opportunities to think about leadership and about the
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global picture and so if I may uh I would like to start with uh a question of the global picture and then we will open to our audience Mr President turkey is democratizing uh the the uh AK party is a party that is a party of
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values it is an islamist party uh but within a democratic context what would you say to those who say that it is not possible for there to be democracy within the Islamic world what would you say to people who say that Egypt uh will have to choose between uh
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Islam and democracy K I know that there are some people that they think that Islam and democracy are contradictory these two don't go together but turkey is denying this turkey the Turkish people the most most majority they are
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Muslim and they are free to practice what they believe and democracy is functioning very well now as I said we are aware our shortcomings definitely there is no perfect democracy in everywhere there are problems here also there are
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problems in America in in in Europe so we have some problems but the main principle of democracy is functioning in Turkey Turkey is a democratic secular country and there's a freedom as I said in my speech particularly since 2002 we have been
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taking real reforms political and economic reforms we are shaping the country in a new times so this why turkey became a source of inspiration for many other Muslims they are questioning their leaders they are saying that look turkey is a Muslim
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country and historically that was the leading country the Islamic World once we inherited our history legacy and our identity is well known but at the same time turkey is negotiating for the full membership with Europe EU tur is the part of European
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custom Union and the democracy is getting deep and deep in tur you again I mentioned in my speech that now we are writing new constitution this new constitution all the people that are engaged all the NGS all the universities Whoever has
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something she has something to say these are all listened to and now the committee is writing within this direction so I'm sure that in near future we will see more countries Muslim identity Muslim population and democracy is flourishing
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there also thank you uh from the audience do we have uh questions in the audience uh we have some here and you'll pass the microphone please stand up if you will hi Mr President um my name is Marty Zach I'm a sophomore and an undergraduate at
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Stanford and amidst the tumult of the Arab Spring two countries that have stayed relatively stable or your own turkey and also Israel and I'm curious um how you see that relationship going forward since traditionally it's been a
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pillar of regional security and stability and particularly in this time time of upheaval I've been receiving this kind of questions uh recently ER I know that many friends of is and turkey they are not happy with the current situation
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but they must know that this was not our preferences and it's because of the is government government you know when the international unan Aid con was going to have to get the people from more than 30 countries there were people in the
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ships they were attacked on the high seas 72 miles away from the coast and killed nine people eight of them were Turkish the another one Turkish American citizens so when that happened if two countries are friend you expect that the other should
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say apology and compensate this so this is the very legitimate expectation of the Turkish people unfortunately so far they have not done this I hope that I mean they understand and as you know two democracies in the region and we
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had good cooperation in fact we were working together for the peace we have a lot once through our efforts Israel and surria were about to stop got the direct talks for the peace but unfortunately these were not appreciated
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that that happened so I hope that that mistake is understood and some appropriate uh steps are taken and again the relationship is established Mr President you mentioned Syria in this answer uh can you talk a little bit about uh Syria turkey has
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been very active in uh trying to bring an end to the humanitarian disaster and to point a Way Forward uh for a more pluralistic uh Syria can you talk just a little bit about that and uh perhaps the next person who has a question can get
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ready to get a microphone we'll come over here yes first of all turkey and surria although we have 900 kilomet border the issue is not the bilateral issue it is the humanitarian issue when the Arab Spring started the surian people also they became
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courageous and they er fear has gone and people demanded Freedom democracy and these are the legitimate right of the people so when they they were in the street unfortunately the regime sent their tanks soldiers and kill the people this how it
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started now unfortunately it's too late you see to control the things we tried a lot before we wish that President Assad leads the change under his leadership Syria transforms because we used to talk with him you remember all those years we were
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telling him that there is no any more place in the on the coast of the mediteran for the authoritarian regimes one party rules because the Syrian Young Generation Syrian people they are monitoring every corner of the world they are knowing that how the people are
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enjoying their rights in other countries so it's their legitimate right so they want it when you don't pay the attention that you don't listen to them and send Soldier weapons kills people then of course they Revol it's their right so
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that's happening you know it's in the UN Security Council there's a 6 point un plan there we wish that that plan is fully with all its aspect it is impl implemented if it is implemented then that can be the orderly the way for the orderly transformation
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in Syria as far as turkey is concerned since we are border we have security problems so far we are hosting 25,000 refugees from Syria and in any time thousands might come to Turkey this happened once during the first Gulf War
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in 1991 in two years 500,000 people from northern Iraq they had to run into turkey when the Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons in calip so there's a danger there so therefore we are more vigilant for democracy in our neighbor country thank
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you yes right here my name is Assan and I'm a first year Master's student at the IPS International Security program um it was Emanuel CT that dubbed international trade as one of the bases of Perpetual peace and a century and a
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half later it was the bretonwood system that actually tried to attempt to bolster security and peace in in light of this and the changes of systemic magn magnitude in North America in North Africa and the Middle East how do you
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see the chanc of turkey tapping into its foreign trade credentials to set up some sort of Perpetual peace in the region thank you you know we have historical relationship with these countries so always there's a sympathy towards turkey there particular in North
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Africa Mar countries and uh when the move started we made historical choice and we said that we'll be together with the people and this was also received very well by the people of course this change is not easy change because the people they spent their
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years under the dictatorship so there is no any establishment leadership enough so this will be painful of course uh but I believe that at the end everything will continue on the correct course and the direction and the the
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trend is going well and the result will be good H between turkey and these countries uh economic cooperation is also very much important uh for instance uh in Egypt there are Turkish industrial zones there is one in Kira 70,000 people
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are employed there and during the difficult days all the factories they were open they were and the people also they owned them I see most of the difficulty in this change is the economic side because during the political transformation and
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in some case turmoil the economies might get weak although still they are G weak but they might be even worse so therefore all of us we have to help them and turkey particularly pay attention on economic cooperation between these countries we
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are sending threade missions we are sending investors to those countries to make investment and to carry Kno how technology and very concrete visible things are happening so I think this is the most important contribution to those country Turkey is
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extending Mr President I'm sure that the uh audience here the students The Faculty uh the Stanford family will join me in thanking you very much for spending the time with us um you have in your family a member of the Stanford
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faculty uh Stanford family and so you are always welcome uh here in the University and all the best to you thank you very much please join me in thanking the president change lives change lives change organizations change organizations change the world