Arab world's fair demands cannot be ignored, says Turkish FM

Governments in the Arab world facing daily protests should focus on listening to their citizens and fulfilling their demands, Turkey's foreign minister said Friday before departing for Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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“With the spread of communication, societies’ demands for democratic freedom, good governance and transparency are intensifying. No society can remain outside these developments,” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu told a news conference before departing.

Arab world's fair demands cannot be ignored, says Turkish FM - Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review

Western Media continues to wait anxiously for news from the Egyptian army in regards to who they intend to support in this time of popular uprising.

It does appear that invasion was not needed, but only time and the Muslim world itself will demand freedom from tyranny.

Whatever value there might have been in supporting autocrats in the past, there certainly is little value in doing so now. The US needs to do a lot of soul-searching and come out in support of Arab democrats...fast. The recent events in Egypt have showed the moral bankruptcy of our support for dictators.

Egyptians should be able to have whatever type of government they want. Our involvement should be limited to encouraging the following: Free speech, free press, free elections, human rights, and not threatening neighboring countries.

American foreign policy is walking a tight rope between supporting democratic principles and social stability. Stability serves our interests more than democracy but we are hypocrites if we ignore the plight of the people denied their human rights. Is it enough for us to urge both sides to restrain themselves even as we press for reform? Or does that just allow us to ignore or own complicity with the current regime? I think the latter.

The ultimate results in the Middle East and not in just one or two countries is going to be not only bad for the West in general but the people of the Middle east as a whole.

They do not deal well with freedom and they create vacuums the are filled by so-called Holy Men who are no more then power hungry zealots who will force things such as Sharia Laws on a larger number of people.

Look what happened in Iran with the fall of the Shaw. The people were set back hundreds of years and missed out on self rule in favor of the Rule of the Islamic Cultists.

Now they have a phony democracy where the Ayatollahs still call the shots and the elected idiot is only the front man for them.

These protests would be good if these Nations would adopt a Constitution that gave the power to the people as ours was intended to be until recent years when it is being usurped.

We should use our influence to pressure the army and whoever else in Egypt has power to to satisfy the public while maintaining stability.I would suggest scapegoating Mubarak, picking a moderate to replace him, and instituting noticeable reforms that immediately demonstrate change to the public. We should also plan for the event that the Muslim Brotherhood ends up in control. That is going to be a problem, seeing as how we supported Mubarak in return for him doing our dirty work in the WOT. Our first priority in Egypt is the canal, so we must insure we have enough diplomatic currency to maintain our access regardless of who wins. We don't need to be friends, but we do need to make that hatred doesn't override reasonable policy.

Chappy said:

American foreign policy is walking a tight rope between supporting democratic principles and social stability. Stability serves our interests more than democracy but we are hypocrites if we ignore the plight of the people denied their human rights. Is it enough for us to urge both sides to restrain themselves even as we press for reform? Or does that just allow us to ignore or own complicity with the current regime? I think the latter.

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stability serves at best only our immediate interests, at the cost of our long-term ones.

Councilman said:

The ultimate results in the Middle East and not in just one or two countries is going to be not only bad for the West in general but the people of the Middle east as a whole.

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Why cause you might not be able to control their government for once...

They do not deal well with freedom and they create vacuums the are filled by so-called Holy Men who are no more then power hungry zealots who will force things such as Sharia Laws on a larger number of people.

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"They"... who's "they"? Arabs? They're incapable of dealing with freedom? Is your honest assessment of an entire race of people? I must say, rather "fair and balanced".

Look what happened in Iran with the fall of the Shaw. The people were set back hundreds of years and missed out on self rule in favor of the Rule of the Islamic Cultists.

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Ok first of all... it's Shah...

Secondly... set them back hundreds of years? Except for the part where they're capable of having weapons of mass destruction right?

If I'm correct, that technology was not available hundreds of years ago, unless of course you're from an alternate universe :shock:

Now they have a phony democracy where the Ayatollahs still call the shots and the elected idiot is only the front man for them.

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As opposed to the one idiot king who they had before who sold himself out to the west and had a regime equally as repressive, in which that revolution against him turned out to be an islamic fundamentalist one.

And of course you ignore the recent election where the opposition actually won, and shows that at least over half of Iran is wiling to stand up to their freedom, but were violently put down by security forces.

Yep, "they're all evil" doesn't seem to work anymore.

These protests would be good if these Nations would adopt a Constitution that gave the power to the people as ours was intended to be until recent years when it is being usurped.

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And why not throw in a little personal partisan hackery on subjects that have nothing to do with eachother.

Councilman, we get it, you hate Obama and think he's after you... it's getting old.

I hear their World's Fair centerpiece is going to be a statue of Muhammad and his 9 year old wife, with the inscription "Why cant Muslims and Catholics just get along?". :mrgreen:

Why do eurocentrists think that the non-Western peoples of the world want democracy? Democracy is an exclusively western concept.

Albert Di Salvo said:

Democracy is an exclusively western concept.

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As imperfect as some democracies are around the world, and the fact they're a little different, this assertion is wrong.

Our Western Concept of democracy is exclusive to us, perhaps. But even the democracies of Europe, Canada and America do have their differences.

South Africa is a democracy, South Korea, Japan, Brazil...

Yep, just "western" countries right...

Albert Di Salvo said:

Why do eurocentrists think that the non-Western peoples of the world want democracy?

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If Egyptians don't want democracy, then why are they protesting for it? Their signs call for democratic elections, not for a better dictator than Mubarak.

Albert Di Salvo said:

Democracy is an exclusively western concept.

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Tell that to all the people in India, Southern Africa, and East Asia who live in the green areas of this map.

Jetboogieman said:

As imperfect as some democracies are around the world, and the fact they're a little different, this assertion is wrong.

Our Western Concept of democracy is exclusive to us, perhaps. But even the democracies of Europe, Canada and America do have their differences.

South Africa is a democracy, South Korea, Japan, Brazil...

Yep, just "western" countries right...

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Democracy in all of those countries is the result of Western colonialism or domination. No exceptions. As western power receds on the world stage, democracy is being rolled back. Look at what happened in Lebanon within the last two weeks. Hezbollah, Iran's agent, has just installed a new prime minister. Is this democracy? Hamas was elected and took power in Gaza, and has refused to hold subsequent elections in which it might lose power. Wishful thinking about democracy doesn't change the fact that it is being rolled back worldwide.

Kandahar said:

If Egyptians don't want democracy, then why are they protesting for it? Their signs call for democratic elections, not for a better dictator than Mubarak.



Tell that to all the people in India, Southern Africa, and East Asia who live in the green areas of this map.

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Regression analysis: Democracy in the Middle East: Regression analysis | The Economist

Albert Di Salvo said:

Regression analysis: Democracy in the Middle East: Regression analysis | The Economist

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Umm OK. Grats on finding an article from 4 years ago about how the Arab world was rolling back democratic reforms at the time. They now appear to be moving in the opposite direction. Did you have a point?

Kandahar said:

Umm OK. Grats on finding an article from 4 years ago about how the Arab world was rolling back democratic reforms at the time. They now appear to be moving in the opposite direction. Did you have a point?

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Yeah. Democracy ain't gonna happen in Egypt because the Muslim Brotherhood is going to be the winner when the dust settles. There may be one election. But that will be the end of it. Hoping for a miracle is not a policy. It is blind faith. Game over.