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| A friend indeed |
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Turkey and Pakistan have long enjoyed the best of relations. The Turks have come to our aid in time of need more than once, and few who saw their response to the October 2005 earthquake will forget their generosity and dedication. Today, we face a national crisis that is not a natural event as is an earthquake, but entirely manmade, and in the midst of this crisis we need to know who our friends are. The real friends, not the fair-weather variety that drift off at the first whiff of trouble or who make pledges that seem to take forever to fulfil. The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is on a two-day official visit to Pakistan, he addressed a joint session of parliament on Monday. On Sunday last the two nations decided to comprehensively upgrade their strategic partnership and improve cooperation across a range of headings – politically, economically, diplomatically and most crucially today, in the area of security. A 'higher level cooperation council' is to be established to address these international agenda-items.
It was the unanimity of views that characterized the discussions between the two sides which touched a wide range of the problems that plague us that has struck a welcome note. We are both Muslim states and both relatively youthful, but have evolved down slightly different paths. Turkey sits at the gateway between east and west whereas we are clearly in the east. Turkey is a republic with a predominantly Muslim population -- and a secular state with a history of parliamentary democracy. As we do, it faces internal difficulties most notably with the largest of its ethnic minorities the Kurds. Where we differ is that Turkey has, despite its difficulties, achieved an internal balance and, perhaps more difficult, a balance between east and west as well as between the secular and the religious aspects of the national persona. This has eluded us throughout our short history, and the 'rough patch' we are currently going through is just the latest manifestation of our failure to resolve fundamental issues of identity, statehood and governance. The hand of friendship and cooperation that Turkey is extending to us is one we can take with confidence. Turkey is one friend that we can look to in the knowledge that they will still be there even when the going gets rough.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
