Yashar Yakysh
Former Foreign Minister and Turkish Representative to the UN Yashar Yakysh, in a conversation with Lenta.ru correspondent Khayal Muazzin, recalled the mistakes of the Turkish state's policy in the Arab countries – in particular, in Syria and Lebanon. He recalled that these countries consider the Ottoman period to be the worst in their history.
“I have always believed that Turkey's policy in Syria is wrong. (…) We say that we brought peace, justice and everything like that there, but in the school curricula of Syria and Lebanon it is written that the darkest periods in the history of Syria and Lebanon are the Ottoman period, ”Yakysh stressed.
He recalled that Kemal Ataturk, the former president of Turkey, who defined Turkey as a secular state, ordered his diplomats not to intervene in conflicts between Arab countries. Now, according to Yakysh, his recommendations are relevant, but Ankara does not follow them and takes one of the sides in the clashes.
In the same interview, he explained the difficulty of Turkey's accession to the European Union. It consists in the prejudices of Europeans, as well as in difficulties with changing the laws of the country
