ISLAMABAD, May 13: Senator Mushahid Hussain here on Friday said Turkey had made successful transformation to civilian administration after prolonged military rule. The country also made harmonious shift to neo-Islamic but secular ethos, said Mr Hussain, who is secretary-general of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League and chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Relations.

He was speaking at a conference on Turkish war of Independence, which concluded on Friday evening.

Mr Hussain wished good luck to Turkey in its negotiations for entry into the European Union and termed it “a test case in the relationship between Muslim countries and the Christian West”.

Turkish Ambassador Kemal Hassan Gur informed the conference that in fact Turkey had taken the decision, dictated by its geography, to become part of Europe long ago — in 1856. Turkey lies in Europe, the Middle East, the Caucasian region and the Mediterranean, he said.

After Turkey joins the EU, he said, Pakistan would gain a foothold in the European continent via his country.

When a discussant complained that Turkish scholars were more keen to visit Europe for academic pursuits, the ambassador wished more people from Pakistan came to his country and “witness the kind of relaxed society Turkey has become in contemporary times”.

From its inheritance, Turkey has been transformed into a multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-dimensional society without sectarian clashes. Pakistan was trying to achieve similar results, he added.

Among the viewpoints presented at the concluding session of the conference was one that said Pakistanis looked at Turkey primarily from the Arab Jihadi perspective which needed to be corrected.

About 30 papers were read in the conference by American, Turkish and Pakistani scholars, including Prof Shariful Mujahid, Dr Masud Akhtar Shaikh, Dr Mohammad Ashraf, Dr Sadduddin Dar, Dr Umar Haidar and Dr Ghazanfar Mehdi. — Jonaid Iqbal