Sir, - Barry Rubin's "America, look behind you! Turn around! Turn around!" (February 24) was very misleading on Turkey and the upcoming local election. He warned that if the current government won the election, Turkey would be encouraged to go in the direction of "Islamic extremism."

The March 29 election is much more about the maturing of our democracy than anything else. Also, it is seen as a referendum on our government's foreign policy since 2007.

Turkish foreign policy has been marked by a very proactive outlook to our neighborhood and aims to reintegrate Turkey back into regions where we were present for centuries. We are aware that coming into the region means taking over more responsibilities. We are not shy of that. The talks we hosted between Israel and Syria for more than a year are only one example of these new responsibilities.

Interpreting Turkey's delicate neighborhood policy as a sign of Turkey becoming "Islamist extremist" not only fails to appreciate the constructive role Turkey has been playing in the region but also reflects the failure to recognize new regional realities.

Turkey's foreign policy establishment is much more sophisticated than Mr. Rubin's very simplistic charge that Turkey is "switching to the radical camp" suggests. When we started to engage with Syria in 2003, we received similar criticism. Today we see that most of our European and American allies understand the wisdom of this policy. I am confident that our approach to the Palestinian issue will go through a similar evolution.

The only agreeable part of Mr. Rubin's piece was that "what happens in Turkey is the most important political event in the Middle East since the Iranian revolution 30 years ago." Indeed, Turkey's consolidation of democracy, its historic engagement with the European Union, its growing regional consciousness and proactivism in its neighborhood is a historic process. Turkey's allies should embrace it and engage with Turkey rather than complain about it.

SUAT KINIKLIOGLU
AK Party Deputy
Ankara