Forum votes Turkey-Arab world ties

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

A packed room of journalists, academics and former diplomats from Turkey and the region has decided Turkey was “a bad model” for the Arab world, which currently is going through unprecedented political change.

The evening session Jan. 12 was held at Istanbul’s Boğaziçi University, and the debate was chaired by former BBC correspondent Tim Sebastian. Those who think Turkey provides a “bad model” were represented by journalist and columnist Ece Temelkuran, and Hasan Mneimneh, a senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund.

On the other side sat Sinan Ülgen, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels and Foreign Policy Studies, and Aboubakr Jamai, the co-editor of the Moroccan news website lakome.com.

After a heated debate, the audience was asked to vote, and 59 percent agreed with the opinion Turkey was a “bad model.”