12 May 2016•Update: 12 May 2016
SIVAS, Turkey
Turkey has become a "beautiful example" to the Islamic world, Anadolu Agency's Deputy Director-General and Editor-in-Chief Metin Mutanoglu said on Thursday.
Speaking at a panel discussion on the ‘Future of the Middle East and Turkey’ in the central province of Sivas, Mutanoglu said he had been closely monitoring the region for a long time.
He said Arab nations had been divided and partitioned among themselves after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and their publics were not allowed to take part in government during this period.
"People were seen as a commodity, that had always been oppressed and exploited," said Mutanoglu, citing Egypt as a country whose progress had been hindered.
Mutanoglu stated that the world had seen the rise of the east through its own natural resources, such as petroleum and gas: "Our geography has the youngest population of the world and there is the example of Turkey with its democracy and economy that exceeds a $10,000 per capita income," he added.
In his remarks, he recalled a visit to Egypt by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan when he was prime minister during which Erdogan said: "‘A secular country may have a Muslim administrator’." Mutanoglu described this as a "key message" to the Middle East.
Mutanoglu said the region had been exploited by the West for a century and seen as a market, adding that the West was thinking "‘They are underdeveloped: we produce and they buy’."
"You [Turkey] are rising at this very time, producing your own plane, wagons and trains. Turkey has become such a beautiful example for the Islamic world, with an amazing self-confidence ingenerated in its nationals and we reached the situation of producing something for the world. They [the West] do not want this," Mutanoglu added.
Mutanoglu also touched upon the Arab Spring which he said had turned into winter the moment the East was about to prove that it could progress.
He cited the popularly elected Muhammed Morsi of Egypt, who was ousted by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in a July 2013 military coup. "The West remained silent, neither raised its voice nor condemned," said Mutanoglu, adding that Sisi was being received with red carpets in Europe instead.
"Eastern and Islamic communities began growing, and will continue to grow," Mutanoglu added.
