If during their education our youths become alienated from their language, history, ancestors, culture and civilization, it means there is a very serious educational problem there.

A fitting external security environment could also play an important role in promoting social consensus and institutionalization towards democratization.

Several experts on the Middle East concur that the Middle East cannot be democratized

When there is no such thing as religious culture and moral education, serious social problems such as drug addiction and racism fill the gap.

My visit to the United States has also given me the opportunity to emphasize the objective of establishing close and intensive links between the Turkish and American peoples, scholars and businessmen

But foremost, I do not subscribe to the view that Islamic culture and democracy cannot be reconciled.

I regard the endorsement of both the objective and a method - which can differ from one country to another- of democratization by the parties in the region as a basic requisite of democratization in the Middle East