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Wolfowitz Says Turkey's Example Important to Muslim World
Monday, July 15, 2002
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

"Turkey's courage to embrace both tradition and modernity offers great promise for all Muslims today -- especially as we consider the war on terrorism. The fight against terrorism is not just a fight of the Western countries. It is a fight of all those who aspire to peace and freedom throughout the world and, most emphatically, in the Muslim world itself."

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
Turkey has been a staunch ally of the United States in war and peace, but its greatest contribution may be the example it sets, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Sunday in Istanbul, Turkey.

Wolfowitz, who is also visiting Afghanistan, called Turkey is an example for other nations with large Muslim populations. Turkey is a nonsectarian republic that has embraced free enterprise.

In the past, both Wolfowitz and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have stressed the role Turkey can play in the Middle East and beyond.

In his prepared remarks to the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation, Wolfowitz specifically pointed out the role Turkey can play in regards to Iraq. He said Iraq under Saddam Hussein slaughters its own people and threatens stability in the region. But a democratic, free-market Iraq "could rapidly build a modern and wealthy society that would be a source of prosperity, rather than insecurity, for its neighbors," he said.

He said this is the reason the United States wants new leadership in Iraq. Wolfowitz assured the group that the United States wants Iraq to maintain territorial integrity after any regime change in Baghdad.
(More: DoD News Source)
2002 © The United States Department of Defense.

Dan