Speech delivered by H.E. Ahmet Davutoğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey at the “Most Successful Turks” Awards Ceremony organized by the Business Network Association (London, 22.11.2011) / Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Foreign Affairs

REPUBLIC OF TÜRKİYE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Speech delivered by H.E. Ahmet Davutoğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey at the “Most Successful Turks” Awards Ceremony organized by the Business Network Association (London, 22.11.2011)

Ses Kaydı

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, dear guests, good evening.

It is a big honour and pleasure for me to be with you in this very meaningful event and ceremony. Today we had several meetings since this morning until this event; with Goldman Sachs, with the Economist magazine, at the Parliament on several occasions. There has been one simple question “What is the success story of Turkey and what are the main forces behind it?”. Really when we look at the existing economy and political situation in international system, starting from the west of Turkey, from Greece up to Portugal, there is a wide economic crisis. Starting from the south of Turkey from Syria to Morocco, there is a huge political crisis. And these economic and political crises are creating their own consequences on several fields. And in the centre of all these crises, there is one country. Not isolated, just the opposite. Very much integrated with the neighbours. But still does not have any crisis. And it is a rising power. And there are three pillars of this success. One is a healthy functioning democracy. We had elections in last June. Second is the economic road; we are especially grateful to Deputy Prime Minister Babacan and he is deep in economics. In spite of all the financial problems throughout the globe, we have an economic success story; one of the highest growth rates belongs to Turkey. And the third is pro-active foreign policy. These are supporting each other. What is the main force behind all these is just one simple law: Manpower and woman power; of course together. In the last nine years, we did not discover a natural gas reserve or oil reserve, but we discovered one simple force and resource: The dynamism of our people and the dynamism of Turks which is also now indicated by the Most Successful Turks Award ceremony. It is not just one individual, it is a nation. And we hope that we will keep this. As a Minister of Foreign Affairs, in order to open the way for this successful Turks, dynamic Turkish people, we implemented a policy: These are exemptions with all the countries. Today in every meeting that is the first request we demand from the counterpart. Colombian President was in Turkey a few days ago and today he is in London. The first question: “Are you ready for the exempt visa?” He accepted and he agreed to visa exemption. There is only one resisting place still implementing visa to Turks. It is EU because we discovered the dynamism of our people but EU still has time to discover this. In the recent decades, EU always discovered things very late. I hope they will understand. And they do not need to look to Turkey, to other places. They need to look at their own people in order to discover: Turks living in Britain, Turks living in Germany, Turks living in France. Not in four generations or five generations but in two generations they created miracles. Colombia, Brazil, Korea they all discovered this and we are patient we have a known tradition of patience in Turkey. One day EU will discover as well. In last, two-three years as the Minister and before me Minister Babacan had this position, before him President Gül had this position, we always try to encourage our people and now everywhere we have businesses. I will give you just an example. In 2005 we declared opening to Africa policy. In this year I went to Ethiopia. In last two, three years we opened 22 new embassies in Africa. In 87 years we only have 12 and we now have 34 Turkish embassies in Africa. In Ethiopia, I was told that in 2005 there was only one Turkish company and Turkish investment; it was worth 50 million US dollars. Now we have 341 Turkish companies and the total Turkish investment is 1 billion. Just in Ethiopia in five years. This is not by an instruction of our Government. This is by the dynamic force of Turkish people and Turkish business sector. Sometimes we have some side effects when this dynamism is moving; as our people are very mobile. Sometimes we are facing problems like they are lost, they are hijacked, they are kidnapped but in every case we are helping and trying; this is the responsibility of the state. Even just I was having dinner, Prime Minister Erdogan called me, I rushed; I thought there was a crisis in Istanbul. He said, I do not want to give the name of the country, “in one country seven Turks were lost , please find them”. This is the mission of being a Minister. We will find them wherever they are and in which conditions they are. Because we know very well the success of Turkey today is because of them, not because of us. Because of our people. Again, I do not want to keep you long but a European Minister, one of my colleague, asked me a question last week, he said “Everyone in Europe is talking about Turkey’s opening to Africa. Why are you opening Embassies everywhere? When we are closing our embassies because of economic crisis, you are opening. What is the reason behind it?” He thought that there is a conspiracy behind that he does not know. But he had good intentions for asking this question to understand our strategy. I told him; very simple. Your businessmen class, your bourgeoisie is too big, too developed; and a little bit tired and bored . But our entrepreneur class is too young, may be too adventurous but at the same time too dynamic to respond. And they want to go everywhere. And it is the mission of my Ministry to open an Embassy or Consulate wherever they are . Now this is the logic behind our manpower. And why today we have so many successful Turks in Britain, it is not our success only as Turks, it is the success of Britain. Because British society discovered Turkish dynamism much earlier than many others. And British society and British Government, they have long a tradition and culture of integration. They have known tradition of multiculturalism in this sense, I had the honour to see, I had the most fortunate seat because I was sitting with dear Baroness Sayeeda Warsi and we were talking on this. The adaptability, the inclusiveness of British society encourage Turks to be more successful. We are grateful to Britain, we are grateful to its culture. And this is our joint success. Therefore Britain has been supporting our integration to the EU because British people know very well, due to the historical connections, the value of Turkey. And we will not give a wrong impression, we will make this true. We will work with Britain and therefore it is a great honour today to be here to given an award to one of the leading British politicians, statesmen who understood this much before than many people. Maybe I will just make a small correction: The most supportive British was the title of the winner. He is not the most supportive British only; he is the most voluntary Turk, Jack Straw.