Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Whenever I come to Kiev, I always feel the spirit of Eurasia. In no other city you can feel that spirit much better than Kiev. When you see the city, you can feel and understand the flow of history in Eurasia. Nations came and went through this geography. But throughout the centuries Kiev has been rebuilt after many destructions and has always been kept as the spirit of several nations who went through these lands. Similar to Istanbul; from East-West direction or North-South direction, these cities are the likely indicators of the flow of history. Without understanding Kiev, you cannot understand Eurasian history, because these steppes from East to West and rivers from North to South are like the pulse of human body. You have to feel the pulse of human body to understand the history and similarly you have to understand the flow of human beings in this geography in order to understand Eurasia.

Similar to Anatolia, Istanbul, those who do not understand Istanbul cannot understand the history of the Balkans, Europe and the Middle East and those who do not understand Kiev cannot understand all the background of several nations and the experience of vast geography throughout these steppes and rivers. Even the faith of Istanbul and Kiev is so interlinked from 10th century onwards. All the movements from Scandinavia through rivers to the Black Sea and to the Bosporus, to South were one of the basic routes in Eurasia up to Africa.

Now we are in a new era of international relations and we have to reinterpret this geography and its history. I wish to mention the assumptions which I made as an academician in early 1990s. One was after the famous article of Francis Fukuyama related to the “end of the history”; I wrote a counter article and my argument was that it was not the end of history; the history will flow faster than ever. I will try to mention what I understand from this fast flow of history after 20 years of these articles. Secondly, in my book “Strategic Depth” and some other writings regarding the flow of history, I refer to Ukraine as a pivotal country - not a country being affected, but as a pivotal country-. It is interesting that in 1990s two famous leading intellectuals made two assumptions. One was Brzezinski when he referred to Ukraine as the bonus, battlefield between East and West. The other one was Huntington who identified Turkey as a torn country in his famous article “Clash of Civilizations”. Why are we battlefields or torn between East and West? Why? Is this our destiny or is this an advantage or asset?

Many Turks saw this like a disadvantage, a big risk, a big problem or an original problem. My position was different; I saw this as a great asset. If you have multidimensional geography, multidimensional history and even multidimensional identity, this is not something which makes a country torn as it was claimed by Huntington. It also makes that country to be linked to several identities and geographies. Turkey is a European country but at the same time an Aegean country. Turkey is a Balkan country but at the same time a Middle Eastern country, a Caucasian country. Turkey is a Black Sea country as it is also a Mediterranean country. Does that mean that Turkey is a torn country and having confusion in the mind where I am or who I am? No, our identity is clear. There is no ambiguity in our minds. Once your identity is clear, your orientation and your strategy will be clear. But once you feel that you are divided, and then you will start to think that your nation is divided; your strategy is divided and that will create a chaos. Therefore when we came to power – and as an academician when I wrote on Turkish policy and as the first chief advisor and as Minister of Foreign Affairs - I always said that Turkish geography and history is a great asset for us. You can change your strategic priorities, you can change your policies based on the changing international context but there are two things you cannot change; your geography and your history. You cannot say that “my geography is very problematic, so let's carry Turkey or Ukraine to central or Latin America or Scandinavia so that we will feel much comfortable”. Geography is given; we are born in our geography and we are born in our history. We cannot change this history. You have to know the assets of your history and your geography.

Having said that, history will flow faster - now after 20 years - I can say there were three earthquakes, big earthquakes, which we lived and now we are in the third earthquake. We have to understand; earthquake is a good analogy for Turks especially, and maybe for Ukraine it is Chernobyl. Because before earthquakes you have certain indications, characteristics of the geology and after the earthquake you have aftershocks. The first earthquake was 1991, when Ukraine and many other states did emerge. That was something positive, like earthquakes which also create some very beautiful lakes. It was a geopolitical earthquake; the geopolitical structure of Eurasia has changed. Cold War has ended. There were several new challenges and new opportunities. Second earthquake was in 2001 after 10 years, it is 9/11 what I call security earthquake. The logic, philosophy and approach to security have changed. The third earthquake was in 2011; it started earlier in 2007, 2008 but the peak was in 2011 which I call an economical - political earthquake. Economic crisis in Europe, a global crisis and parallel to this, a political earthquake in the Middle East.

When I wake up in the morning and turn my face to the West, we have a belt of economic crisis from Greece up to Ireland and when I turn my face to the South, to Syria and Iraq, from Iraq up to Morocco there is a belt of political crisis. When we turn our face to the East, from Iran to Afghanistan we have also several security and political crises. Fortunately, when we look at the North, we see Ukraine and Russia and Eurasia. Similarly in 1990s the crisis was oriented in Eurasia, Balkans, Caucasia around the Black Sea. All frozen conflicts which we have today, from Dniester crisis up to Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, Ossetia, still they are the outcomes of the first geopolitical earthquake we have to deal with. Still they are there. These are aftershocks of the earthquake. Now OSCE did emerge or became pivotal organization because of all these first geopolitical earthquake. In OSCE, we have several agenda items including Nagorno-Karabakh. All these questions are in the agenda and we are happy that our Secretary General is here. It is also a historic time when Ukraine will be taking over the chairmanship in OSCE, because of these conflicts in Eurasia and because of the role of Ukraine in Eurasia.

These are the earthquakes which we have to face and I claimed and still believe - unlike Brzezinski - Ukraine is not a battlefield of East and West but Ukraine is a pivotal country, is not an ordinary nation state which emerged because of the earthquakes but is a pivotal country having multidimensional geography and multidimensional history. Therefore, when I became chief advisor to Prime Minister Erdoğan in 2002, I gave a list of countries which we have to develop our relations in depth. These countries were Ukraine, South Africa, South Korea, Brazil, Nigeria - some countries which have hinterlands and some countries which are medium-size, optimum size like Turkey, not with a huge geography, but such an optimum geography which can make a change in history when we have good relations and synergy. I am happy now – almost after 10 years - our relations with Ukraine have these characteristics of not only strategic partnership, but more than that, because we have - as I said - similar multidimensional geography. Ukraine is European and Asian. Nobody can say that Ukraine is purely European and Ukraine must forget Asia. We have to make a choice between Europe and Asia. No. Nations cannot make a choice between different characteristics. I know - especially in Ukraine - the character of domestic politics. It is the responsibility and duty of statesmen, leaders to unite the country around one identity, one strategy despite of the differences of the region. In Turkey we have Thrace, Balkans which looks like more Bosnians, then we have Southeastern Anatolia more Middle Eastern, but the common identity and the common strategy unites them all. Being part of the nation and being proud of a rising power is the uniting factor. If you have a crisis you will feel the disunity. But if you have common strategic objective all of them are united, then they start to feel that they are part of the same identity and strategy. This is the challenge for the statesmen. Both Ukraine and Turkey, we are both European and Asian. Nobody can ask us to forget Europe - you are an Asian country - or to forget Asia - you are a European country. Similarly, we are Black Sea country, but at the same time Mediterranean or we have other regional identities. This is an asset. This is a great asset for the countries for the regions who want to make a difference.

What do we do in Turkish-Ukrainian relations in that sense? Two weeks ago we had High Level Strategic Council meeting which Turkey has only with a few countries - most of them are neighboring countries. And in August we initiated visa exemption policy between Turkey and Ukraine. I am happy to hear this morning from our Ambassador that in August after visa exemption started, the Ukrainians coming to Turkey increased by 20%. Now we are negotiating on free trade agreement. We hope soon we will conclude free trade agreement and we will be having mobility of human beings and commodities.

Interestingly, I want to share this as well, in 2003, before their privatization, when I met with the Turkish Airlines administration, I told them “Now you are a private company, but as state we want you to consider three priorities that we want you to do”. One; you need to fly to all neighboring countries and to all countries in our surrounding regions. We do not want to see any countries that you do not fly. Second; once we declare a new opening to a new region or country you will fly there. For example Africa, we declared the 2005 as “Year of Africa”, in last three years we opened 23 new embassies in Africa before we had 12 embassies. In three years we opened 23, now we have 34 embassies in Africa and 35th is coming. We advised the Turkish Airlines to fly to all African countries and now Turkish Airlines has made all the plans and the destinations have increased. We advised them to fly more than one city in pivotal countries we have decided. If possible you will fly everywhere in these pivotal countries. I said for example Ukraine. We want you to have such a relation with Ukraine not only from the capital cities but from every city there should be flights. I am happy to say that today Turkish Airlines is flying to 6 Ukrainian cities with full capacity and Ukrainian Airlines is flying to Turkey in that sense and soon there will be direct flights to Ankara as well. Why did we say so? Because we want to see more and more economic activity and human mobility between us. We want to consider Black Sea much like a Bosporus or Dnieper between the two countries, not as a sea. We are neighbors not far away, there is a sea between us but it is not Atlantic Ocean like between Europe and the US. It is a sea for us like Bosporus or Dnieper where you can have full access to each other and you can have full mobility between your countries.

There should be a new approach in strategic thinking after every earthquake. As Turkey, We had to try to reformulate our strategic thinking. Now I know there is timing and President Yanukovych is waiting for us. I want to mention a few things what are our priorities after the last economic political earthquake in 2011. There are two challenges. One is European crisis. European Union is being transformed in 1990s. European Union has expanded, has deepened in line with Maastricht criteria. But today there is a challenge in front of the European Union about the future of the European Union, about the strategic place of EU in international context which Turkey and Ukraine have to follow closely. For Turkey, EU is not just a strategic choice, but it is a choice of strong political will. Despite of all the difficulties created by some European countries, because of the cultural prejudices, because of the several other reasons - I do not have time to discuss here the orientation – we will continue to be European and Turkey one day will be member of EU. It is up to European Union now to decide whether European Union will be strategically relevant, economically competitive, and culturally inclusive. Turkish membership is a test for them not for us. If European Union wants to be strategically relevant, economically competitive, culturally inclusive, they have to say “yes” to Turkey. If they prefer to be strategically less relevant, economically less competitive, culturally more inward looking, they will say “no” to Turkey. We are ready if they say “yes”, tomorrow we will be a part of EU. Turkey is not Turkey of 10 years ago. Just to give you one statistics despite of economic crisis, last year Turkey has created 1,500,000 new jobs and in Europe around 1,500,000 have lost their jobs. If Turkey was in the EU, there would be zero unemployment. We are creating jobs; Europeans are losing jobs. There are several other examples. Our choice is clear. Of course, Ukraine will decide for their strategic priority but EU orientation for Ukraine is also an important part of strategy despite of all difficulties in European Union which will create the new momentum for strategy as well as politics.

Second aspect of economical- political earthquake is Middle East; a new Middle East will emerge and this Middle East will base on the will of the people. Free and fair election will be the main criteria in the Middle East. Two years ago in Arab world, there was no single state which has free and fair elections except Lebanon and it created a crisis. In Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt there are now elected presidents or prime ministers. In Morocco, as for it is a kingdom there is an elected Prime Minister. Soon we hope including Syria, all these regimes will have their own transformation like Balkan countries transformation, Eastern European transformation in 1990s and that will create new opportunities. I will give you one example and finish. President Morsi, Egyptian President was in Turkey yesterday and we had a long consultation about the future of Turkish-Egyptian relations and about the future of the region. When I came here with my dear colleague, Constantine and Prime Minister Erdoğan with HE President Yanukovych, we discussed on one possible new approach in South North direction - same thing we discussed with Egyptians. We told them if there is a trilateral cooperation between Egypt, Turkey and Ukraine that would be the longest corridor in the world, in the North- South or South- North direction which could be made by three countries. If this happens from Central Africa up to Baltic region, there will be one corridor of transportation. Assume that - we have the Nile – sea transportation or a highway or high speed trains which they plan starting from south Egypt up to Alexandria. From Alexandria there will be started ferry transport to Mersin. From Mersin now we are planning a highway up to Sinop. From Sinop to Odessa or Dnieper, you can have the best corridor in North South direction. It might be a dream for now but one day it will happen and if it happens, all these three pivotal states will be connecting to each other in such a cooperative way. We need to be creative and Egyptian President was very happy to hear this and said they are ready for any type of cooperation.

Instead of looking with the existing economic structures, the existing base of economic cooperation we have to be creative to have a new strategic thinking. I was positively so surprised - I didn't know, I learned this from some tragic experience but - I was so positively surprised how Ukraine is still present in Middle East. Thousands of Ukrainians were living in Libya, in Egypt and in Syria today. You should not be thinking that Middle East far away from Ukraine, it should not be in our agenda. Now in this interconnected international arena, every country is related to every country. It is up to you through which methods you will connect these countries. In this new shape of international arena, countries like Turkey and Ukraine having multidimensional geography and history have great assets. We are not torn countries; we are not battlefield of East and West. We are pivotal countries which will shape East and West, Europe and Asia and we will not be shaped as a passive actor. We will be shaping Eurasia again and again.

Thank you very much.