ISIS a threat to whole Muslim world, Turkish Ambassador

Muhammad Azam/DTNN

azam@dt.bh

Manama

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is not only a threat to all the Middle Eastern countries but also a threat to all the Islamic countries, said Turkish Ambassador Hatun Demirer in an exclusive interview with the DT News yesterday. 

She said that they should not single out Middle East in this regard. Daesh is a threat to the whole Muslim world because of “their strange ideology.” “Unfortunately, all these activities done in the name of Islam by them. They are tainting our noble religion,” she added. She also said that the issue of ISIS is a complex one it could not be tackled without a comprehensive policy encompassing all the related issues. “Air bombings only will not succeed in eradicating them,” she added.

“Unless Assad regime would be over in Syria, ISIS will become stronger and stronger,” she said. In Syria, the moderate opposition should be supported to become stronger in order to find out a political solution to the issue.

Hatun Demirer is a career diplomat who was appointed as an ambassador in Bahrain in 2013. She has been working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey since 1990. She has worked in different departments of the ministry and before her appointment in Bahrain, she had served in various Turkish Missions in 6 different countries. She is married and has two children.

Talking further on the issue of Islamic State, she said whatever they did in Saudi Arabia was horrible and terrorism was intolerable in any shape.  In response to a question whether the ISIS is part of a great game? She said that she did not know anything about it, however our focus should be on our own region.

Responding to the question whether Bahrain and other Arab countries are suspicious about the P5+1 Nuclear deal with Iran, she said that their suspicions were not baseless. They have genuine reasons and Iran should come out with convincing policies to address those reasons. “Iran need to convince the GCC states and tell them they were sincere and wanted to resolve the issue,” she said.

Speaking on the possibility of third world war, Ms. Demirer said that they were already in a state of war. “People are already dying and killing each other,” she said, “We should not wait for third or fourth world war. What we need to do is to find out solutions for how to come out of this situation.”

The Ambassador said she was convinced that the countries of this region had the capability to come over these issues but what they needed was more cooperation and mutual trust.

She said that they could not change their geography and shift their countries from this region to another part of the world where there was peace. “When we are bound to live together why not live as peaceful neighbours?” she asks.

“If fire breaks out in our neighbour will we say it is their house not ours and stay at home and do nothing?” she asks and then answers herself, “No, we will go and bring a bucket of water to throw on the fire to distinguish it. By the same way if Syrian people are suffering, they are not suffering alone, we all are suffering. So we need to come out with a solution and that is possible only if we trust each other.” She concluded.

Commenting on the theory of clash of civilisations, she said that some people called it clash of religions, but whatever it was, we should try to avoid it and our focus should be on alliance of civilisations – not clash of civilisations.

We see more polarisation on earth, the polarisation of communities, of religious groups, sects and that is dangerous. “We need to focus on why Islamophobia is increasing in the Western world.”

She said that to become a member of European Union was a goal for Turkey and they were trying to achieve that goal as soon as possible. Responding to a question when they will get that goal, she quipped, “ask Europeans - not me.”

She said that she liked Bahrain a lot. It is a very unique country with multicultural and multi religious environment. “Bahraini people are very warm hearted and I didn’t meet any expat living here who is not happy. The existence of happy expat community is the testament that this Bahrain was a multi cultural country.”