[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 27 (Monday, July 5, 2004)]
[Pages 1177-1181]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at Galatasaray University in Istanbul

June 29, 2004

    Thank you all very much. Distinguished guests, the rector of this 
fine university, ladies and gentlemen: Laura and I are grateful for the 
warm and gracious hospitality we have received these past 3 days in the 
Republic of Turkey. I am honored to visit this beautiful country where 
two continents meet, a nation that upholds great tradition and faces the 
future with confidence. America is honored to call Turkey an Ally and a 
friend.
    Many Americans trace their heritage to Turkey, and Turks have 
contributed greatly to our national life, including, most recently, a 
lot of baskets for the Detroit Pistons from Mehmet Okur. I know you're 
proud of this son of your country, and there's a lot of people in 
Detroit really grateful for his talents.
    I'm grateful to my friend the Prime Minister for his leadership and 
his hospitality. I also want to thank my friend the President, President 
Sezer, for his hospitality. These men and your country have hosted 
members of NATO in an historic time in our Alliance. For most of its 
history, NATO existed to deter aggression from a powerful army at the 
heart of Europe. In this century, NATO looks outward to new threats that 
gather in secret and bring sudden violence to peaceful cities. We face 
terrorist networks that rejoice when parents bury their murdered 
children or rejoice when bound men plead for mercy. We face outlaw 
regimes that give aid and shelter to these killers and seek weapons of 
mass murder. We face the challenges of corruption and poverty and 
disease, which throw whole nations into chaos and despair. These are the 
conditions in which terrorism can survive.
    Some on both sides of the Atlantic have questioned whether the NATO 
Alliance still has a great purpose. To find that purpose, they only need 
to open their eyes. The dangers are in plain sight. The only question is 
whether we will confront them or look away and pay a terrible cost.
    Over the last few years, NATO has made its decision. Our Alliance is 
restructuring to oppose threat that arise beyond the borders of Europe. 
NATO is providing security in Afghanistan. NATO has agreed to help train 
the security forces of a sovereign Iraq, which is a great advantage and 
crucial success for the Iraqi people. And in Istanbul, we have dedicated 
ourselves to the advance of reform in the broader Middle East, because 
all people deserve a just government and because terror is not the tool 
of the free. Through decades of the cold war, our great Alliance of 
liberty never failed in its duties, and we are rising to our duties once 
again.
    The Turkish people understand the terrorists, because you have seen 
their work, even in the last weeks. You've heard the sirens and 
witnessed the carnage and mourned the dead. After the murders of Muslims 
and Christians and Jews in Istanbul last November, a resident of this 
city said of the terrorists, ``They don't have any religion. They are 
friends of evil.'' In one of the attacks, a Muslim woman lost her son 
Ahmet, her daughter-in-law Berta, and her unborn grandchild. This is 
what she said: ``Today I am saying goodbye to my son. Tomorrow I'm 
saying farewell to my Berta. I don't know what the

[[Page 1178]]

killers wanted from my kids. Were they jealous of their happiness?''
    The Turkish people have grieved, but your nation is showing how 
terrorist violence will be overcome, with courage and with a firm 
resolve to defend your just and tolerant society. This land has always 
been important for its geography, here at the meeting place of Europe, 
Asia, and the Middle East. Now Turkey has assumed even greater 
historical importance because of your character as a nation. Turkey is a 
strong, secular democracy, a majority Muslim society, and a close ally 
of free nations. Your country, with 150 years of democratic and social 
reform, stands as a model to others and as Europe's bridge to the wider 
world. Your success is vital to a future of progress and peace in Europe 
and in the broader Middle East, and the Republic of Turkey can depend on 
the support and friendship of the United States of America.
    For decades, my country has supported greater unity in Europe to 
secure liberty, to build prosperity, and to remove sources of conflict 
on this continent. Now the European Union is considering the admission 
of Turkey, and you are moving rapidly to meet the criteria for 
membership. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had a vision of Turkey as a strong 
nation among other European nations. That dream can be realized by this 
generation of Turks. America believes that as a European power, Turkey 
belongs in the European Union.
    Your membership would also be a crucial advance in relations between 
the Muslim world and the West, because you are part of both. Including 
Turkey in the EU would prove that Europe is not the exclusive club of a 
single religion. It would expose the ``clash of civilizations'' as a 
passing myth of history. Fifteen years ago, an artificial line that 
divided Europe, drawn at Yalta, was erased. And now this continent has 
the opportunity to erase another artificial division by including Turkey 
in the future of Europe.
    Turkey has found its place in the community of democracies by living 
out its own principles. Muslims are called to seek justice, fairness to 
all, care for the stranger, compassion for those in need. And you have 
learned that democracy is the surest way to build a society of justice. 
The best way to prevent corruption and abuse of power is to hold rulers 
accountable. The best way to ensure fairness to all is to establish the 
rule of law. The best way to honor human dignity is to protect human 
rights. Turkey has found what nations of every culture and every region 
have found: If justice is the goal, then democracy is the answer.
    In some parts of the world, especially in the Middle East, there is 
a wariness toward democracy, often based on misunderstanding. Some 
people in Muslim cultures identify democracy with the worst of Western 
popular culture and want no part of it. And I assure them, when I speak 
about the blessings of liberty, coarse videos and crass commercialism 
are not what I have in mind. There is nothing incompatible between 
democratic values and high standards of decency. For the sake of their 
families and their culture, citizens of a free society have every right 
to strive peacefully for a moral society.
    Democratic values also do not require citizens to abandon their 
faith. No democracy can allow religious people to impose their own view 
of perfection on others, because this invites cruelty and arrogance that 
are foreign to every faith. And all people in a democracy have the right 
to their own religious beliefs. But all democracies are made stronger 
when religious people teach and demonstrate upright conduct, family 
commitment, respect for the law, and compassion for the weak. Democratic 
societies should welcome, not fear, the participation of the faithful.
    In addition, democracy does not involve automatic agreement with 
other democracies. Free governments have a reputation for independence, 
which Turkey has certainly earned, and that is the way that democracy 
works. We deal honestly with each other. We make our own decisions, and 
yet, in the end, the disagreements of the moment are far outweighed by 
the ideals we share.
    Because representative governments reflect their people, every 
democracy has its own structure, traditions, and opinions. There are, 
however, certain commitments of free governments that do not change from 
place to place. The promise of democracy is fulfilled in freedom of 
speech, the rule of

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law, limits on the power of the state, economic freedom, respect for 
women, and religious tolerance. These are the values that honor the 
dignity of every life and set free the creative energies that lead to 
progress.
    Achieving these commitments of democracy can require decades of 
effort and reform. In my own country, it took generations to throw off 
slavery, racial segregation, and other practices that violated our 
ideals. So we do not expect that other societies can be transformed in a 
day. But however long the journey, there is only one destination worth 
striving for, and that is a society of self-rule and freedom.
    Democracy leads to justice within a nation, and the advance of 
democracy leads to greater security among nations. The reason is clear: 
Free peoples do not live in endless stagnation and seethe in resentment 
and lash out in envy, rage, and violence. Free peoples do not cling to 
every grievance of the past. They build and live for the future. This is 
the experience of countries in the NATO Alliance. Bitterness and 
hostility once divided France and Germany, Germany and Poland, Romania 
and Hungary. But as these nations grew in liberty, ancient disputes and 
hatreds have been left to history. And because the people of Europe now 
live in hope, Europe no longer produces armed ideologies that threaten 
the peace of the world. Freedom in Europe has brought peace to Europe, 
and now freedom can bring peace to the broader Middle East.
    I believe that freedom is the future of the Middle East, because I 
believe that freedom is the future of all humanity. And the historic 
achievement of democracy in the broader Middle East will be a victory 
shared by all. Millions who now live in oppression and want will finally 
have a chance to provide for their families and lead hopeful lives. 
Nations in the region will have greater stability because governments 
will have greater legitimacy. And nations like Turkey and America will 
be safer, because a hopeful Middle East will no longer produce 
ideologies and movements that seek to kill our citizens. This 
transformation is one of the great and difficult tasks of history. And 
by our own patience and hard effort and with confidence in the peoples 
of the Middle East, we will finish the work that history has given us.
    Democracy, by definition, must be chosen and defended by the people 
themselves. The future of freedom in the Islamic world will be 
determined by the citizens of Islamic nations, not by outsiders. And for 
citizens of the broader Middle East, the alternatives could not be more 
clear. One alternative is a political doctrine of tyranny, suicide, and 
murder that goes against the standards of justice found in Islam and 
every other great religion. The other alternative is a society of 
justice, where men and women live peacefully and build better lives for 
themselves and their children. This is the true cause of the people of 
the Middle East, and that cause can never be served by the murder of the 
innocent.
    This struggle between political extremism and civilized values is 
unfolding in many places. We see the struggle in Iraq, where killers are 
attempting to undermine and intimidate a free government. We see the 
struggle in Iran, where tired, discredited autocrats are trying to hold 
back the democratic will of a rising generation. We see that struggle in 
Turkey, where the PKK has abandoned its cease-fire with the Turkish 
people and resumed violence. We see it in the Holy Land, where terrorist 
murderers are setting back the good cause of the Palestinian people, who 
deserve a reformed, peaceful, and democratic state of their own.
    The terrorists are ruthless and resourceful. They will not prevail. 
Already more than half of the world's Muslims live under democratically 
constituted governments, from Indonesia to West Africa, from Europe to 
North America. And the ideal of democracy is also powerful and popular 
in the Middle East. Surveys in Arab nations reveal broad support for 
representative government and individual liberty. We are seeing reform 
in Kuwait and Qatar, Bahrain and Yemen, Jordan and Morocco. We're seeing 
men and women of conscience and courage step forward to advocate 
democracy and justice in the broader Middle East. As we found in the 
Soviet Union and behind the Iron Curtain, this kind of moral conviction 
was more powerful than vast armies and prison walls and the will of 
dictators. And this kind of moral conviction is

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also more powerful than the whips of the Taliban, the police state of 
Saddam Hussein, or the cruel designs of terrorists. The way ahead is 
long and difficult, yet people of conscience go forward with hope. The 
rule of fear did not survive in Europe. The rule of free peoples will 
come to the Middle East.
    Leaders throughout that region, including some friends of the United 
States, must recognize the direction of the events of the day. Any 
nation that compromises with violent extremists only emboldens them and 
invites future violence. Suppressing dissent only increases radicalism. 
The long-term stability of any government depends on being open to 
change and responsive to citizens. By learning these lessons, Turkey has 
become a great and stable democracy, and America shares your hope that 
other nations will take this path.
    Western nations, including my own, want to be helpful in the 
democratic progress of the Middle East, yet we know there are suspicions 
rooted in centuries of conflict and colonialism. And in the last 60 
years, many in the West have added to this distrust by excusing tyranny 
in the region, hoping to purchase stability at the price of liberty. But 
it did not serve the people of the Middle East to betray their hope of 
freedom. It has not made Western nations more secure to ignore the cycle 
of dictatorship and extremism. Instead we've seen the malice grow deeper 
and the violence spread, until both have appeared on the streets of our 
own cities. Some types of hatred will never be appeased. They must be 
opposed and discredited and defeated by a hopeful alternative, and that 
alternative is freedom.
    Reformers in the broader Middle East are working to build freer and 
more prosperous societies, and America and Turkey, the G-8, the EU, and 
NATO have now agreed to support them. Many nations are helping the 
people of Afghanistan to secure a free government. And NATO now leads a 
military operation in Afghanistan, in the first action by the Alliance 
outside of Europe. In Iraq, a broad coalition, including the military 
forces of many NATO countries, is helping the people of that country to 
build a decent and democratic government after decades of corrupt 
oppression. And NATO is providing support to a Polish-led division.
    The Government of Iraq has now taken a crucial step forward. In a 
nation that suffered for decades under tyranny, we have witnessed the 
transfer of sovereignty and the beginning of self-government. In just 15 
months, the Iraqi people have left behind one of the worst regimes in 
the Middle East, and their country is becoming the world's newest 
democracy. The world has seen a great event in the history of Iraq, in 
the history of the Middle East, and in the history of liberty.
    The rise of Iraqi democracy is bringing hope to reformers across the 
Middle East and sending a very different message to Tehran and Damascus. 
A free and sovereign Iraq is a decisive defeat for extremists and 
terrorists, because their hateful ideology will lose its appeal in a 
free and tolerant and successful country. The terrorists are doing 
everything they can to undermine Iraqi democracy, by attacking all who 
stand for order and justice and by committing terrible crimes to break 
the will of free nations. These terrorists have the ability to cause 
suffering and grief, but they do not have the power to alter the outcome 
in Iraq. The civilized world will keep its resolve. The leaders of Iraq 
are strong and determined, and the people of Iraq will live in freedom.
    Iraq still faces hard challenges in the days and months ahead. 
Iraq's leaders are eager to assume responsibility for their own 
security, and that is our wish as well. So this week at our summit, NATO 
agreed to provide assistance in training Iraqi security forces. I am 
grateful to Turkey and other NATO Allies for helping our friends in Iraq 
to build a nation that governs itself and defends itself.
    Our efforts to promote reform and democracy in the Middle East are 
moving forward. At the NATO Summit, we approved the Istanbul Cooperative 
Initiative, offering to work together with nations of the broader Middle 
East to fight terrorism, to control their borders, and to aid victims of 
disaster. We're thankful for the important role that Turkey is playing 
as a democratic partner in the Broader Middle East Initiative.
    For all of our efforts to succeed, however, more is needed than 
plans and policies. We

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must strengthen the ties of trust and good will between ourselves and 
the peoples of the Middle East. And trust and good will come more easily 
when men and women clear their minds and their hearts of suspicion and 
prejudice and unreasoned fear. When some in my country speak in an ill-
informed and insulting manner about the Muslim faith, their words are 
heard abroad and do great harm to our cause in the Middle East. When 
some in the Muslim world incite hatred and murder with conspiracy 
theories and propaganda, their words are also heard by a generation of 
young Muslims who need truth and hope, not lies and anger. All such 
talk, in America or in the Middle East, is dangerous and reckless and 
unworthy of any religious tradition. Whatever our culture differences 
may be, there should be respect and peace in the House of Abraham.
    The Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk has said that the finest view of 
Istanbul is not from the shores of Europe or from the shores of Asia but 
from a bridge that unites them and lets you see both. His work has been 
a bridge between cultures, and so is the Republic of Turkey. The people 
of this land understand, as that great writer has observed, that ``What 
is important is not a clash of parties, civilizations, cultures, East 
and West.'' What is important, he says, is to realize ``that other 
people in other continents and civilizations'' are ``exactly like you.''
    Ladies and gentlemen, in their need for hope, in their desire for 
peace, in their right to freedom, the peoples of the Middle East are 
exactly like you and like me. Their birthright of freedom has denied--
been denied for too long. We will do all in our power to help them find 
the blessings of liberty.
    Thank you for your hospitality. May God bless Turkey. May God 
continue to bless the United States.

Note: The President spoke at 2:13 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to 
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer of 
Turkey; and former President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.