by Areej Abuqudairi | May 12, 2013 | 23:57
AMMAN — Politicians and academics on Sunday called for rethinking Arab and Turkish ties to build on cultural commonalities and correct “misunderstandings in history”.

“There is an urgent need for re-examining historical ties between the Arabs and the Turks to reach new prospects for the future,” said former prime minister Marouf Bakhit.

Bakhit, who previously served as Jordan’s ambassador to Turkey, made his remarks at the opening ceremony of the conference “Commonalities and Cultural Interactions Between the Arabs and Turks” held at the University of Jordan (UJ).

“Some misunderstandings… have developed in the past. The Turks accused the Arabs of contributing to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire by taking the West’s side in World War I. Some Arab critics, however, accused the Turks of ‘Turkification’ and oppression,” Bakhit noted.

Turkish ambassador to Jordan Sedat Onal said there are positive prospects now for enhanced relationships between Turkey and Arab countries.

“Now, there is enough political will on both sides [Arab States and Turkey], especially in Jordan, where in the last decade we developed economic and political ties,” he told The Jordan Times on the sidelines of the conference.

Over the past 10 years, trade between Jordan and Turkey increased from $10 billion to $50 billion, and numbers of tourists from both countries have increased from 400,000 to 1 billion, a statement carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, quoted Onal as saying.

Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour said the Jordanian-Turkish relationship was a “model” in the region, noting that the two countries see eye-to-eye on foreign policy.

Onal said that Turkey’s position on the Syrian crisis was “identical” to Jordan’s.

“We want to see a political transition in Syria, but we think it should be led by the Syrians themselves, and it should be achieved by preserving the territorial integrity and political unity of the country,” he told The Jordan Times.

The three-day conference brings together 70 academics, researchers, and experts in culture and education from Turkey and several Arab countries, according to UJ President Ekhleif Tarawneh.

“The majority of scholars [participating in the conference] are from Turkey and other Arab countries, because this is more about Arab Turkish relationships,” he told The Jordan Times.

A “Turkish Corner” was inaugurated at UJ’s language centre to provide students with space to learn about the language and culture, Tarawneh said.

UJ will graduate the first class of Turkish language students next year, he added.

SOURCE: JORDAN TIMES WWW.JORDANTIMES.COM