(source: wws.princeton.edu)

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke of a friendlier foreign policy and a more trusting “new global order” in a wide-ranging speech at Princeton’s Richardson Auditorium on Sept. 23, sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

The Prime Minister also touched on regional topics including Turkey’s tense relationship with Armenia, saying that a possible agreement between the two countries could be ratified by Parliament by October 10th or 11th. He said that a relationship between the two countries “can be conducted with mutual respect.”

Erdoğan also clearly expressed a sense of frustration at the continued obstacles to Turkey’s EU accession.

“We have, in that process, something quite peculiar,” he said. “1959 was when we started our discussions with Europe. We are in 2009. Fifty years have passed and there is no other country that has had to wait for that long.”

For the whole story, see the Woodrow Wilson School News.