Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu granted an interview to American Newsweek magazine online. NEWS.am posts the full text of the interview:

“We try to resolve issues regarding signed agreements with Armenia and moved forward in resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijan dispute,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu stated.

“Has the West really ‘lost’ Turkey? With Ankara showing a new cordiality to countries like Syria and Iran, foreign-policy analysts are scrambling to assess whether Turkey has shrugged off Europe and the United States in favor of its Muslim neighbors,” the source wonders.

Q.: Many of Turkey's allies are wondering, after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's recent visit to Iran, whose side is Turkey on?

A.: In order to answer this question, you have to understand the geography and the history of Turkey. We are a European country and we are an Asian country. We have direct access to the Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. So Turkish foreign policy has to be multiregional and multidimensional. We are also part of European history. But at the same time, the history of more than 20 [Middle Eastern and Balkan] countries could be written only using Turkish archives. We have more Bosnians in Turkey than in Bosnia itself, more Albanians than in Albania, as well as Kurds and Arabs. Because of these historic connections, all these countries have certain expectations from us.

Q.: Yet during the Cold War you were unequivocally a U.S. ally.

A.: The Cold War was a static international environment; you had only two options—either [to be a] member of NATO or a member of the Warsaw Pact. There was no third alternative. After the Cold War, a dynamic situation emerged, and Turkey had to assume a foreign-policy role in all [its neighboring] regions regardless of their ethnic or religious background. But at the same time, Turkey's most institutionalized relationship remains its membership of NATO—this is Turkey's strongest tie. Similarly, the main objective of Turkish foreign policy is integration with Europe. Our history is part of Europe's, our culture is part of Europe's, and our process of modernization is parallel to the developments in Europe. Our membership of NATO and the negotiation process with the EU is the strategic priority of Turkey.

Q.: Isn't friendship with Iran mutually exclusive with membership in NATO?

A.: Our relations with Iran are not something new. The Turkish-Iranian border has been stable for 370 years. We have been implementing a policy of “zero problems with our neighbors,” not just with Iran, but also Iraq and Syria and also with non-Muslim countries such as Georgia, Bulgaria, Greece, Russia, Romania, and with all of our other neighbors. All our [regional] relations improved. Today Russia is our biggest trade partner; our relationship with Greece and Georgia are excellent. So it's a consistent policy across the board. You can't say that Turkey is giving special priority to Iran. The question should be: is having zero problems with our neighbors compatible with being a candidate for the EU and a member of NATO? From our perspective, yes, they are compatible. This is the whole philosophy of the EU itself, which emerged through minimizing political problems with its neighbors. Similarly, we want to have a zone of security and stability around us. And this is exactly the European approach, based on European philosophy and European values. If you study Germany's Ostpolitik in the 1960s, you can understand Turkey's Eastern politics in 2009.

Q.: Are relations between Turkey and the U.S. better than during the Bush administration?

A.: Much better. Obama's style is to encourage more multilateralism, more consultation, more interaction with allies, instead of preparing policy and implementing it before consulting with other allies. We will come up with the same list. Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, energy security, the Caucasus, the Balkans. We share the problems, and we are therefore trying to solve these problems together.

Q.: Where do you see yourself and Turkey in 10 years?

A.: I see a country that has managed to start economic integration and has solid relations with all its neighbors. Also, a country that has become a member of the EU. I see a Turkey which keeps an effective role within NATO and which is also a key player not only in security-related fields but also in economic organizations such as G20. I do not think these objectives are unreachable by the year 2023, the 100th anniversary of the Turkish Republic, 14 years from now.