Turkey's president sees Arab spring as unreturnable process

ISTANBUL (A.A) - November 28, 2011 - Turkey's president said on Sunday that he saw Arab spring as an unreturnable process. President Abdullah Gul said he used to see Arab Spring as inevitable at first, but now he was seeing it as an unreturnable process. "In simple words, we are experiencing normalization of history in this part of the world," Gul said during the second roundtable meeting of the Chatham House in Istanbul. Gul said a democratic process of no return had begun in the region, and there would be ups and downs until every country established its balance. Turkey would be a source of inspiration to those countries, thanks to its cultural and historical ties with the region, President Gul also said. Turkey's European Union (EU) Minister and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis also delivered a speech in the meeting, and said establishing democracy and stability in the region was an indispensable condition for world stability and security. The Istanbul Roundtable is an annual high-level meeting that brings together an exclusive group of global leaders from the worlds of business, politics and civil society to discuss international issues of critical importance to global growth and security. Chatham House has chosen to establish the Roundtable in Istanbul because the city increasingly embodies some of the key cross-currents between a long-standing Atlantic community of nations and those to the city's east whose recent rise is redefining international relations.