His excellency Süleyman Demirel is President of the Republic of Turkey The Turkish modernisation was built on two main pillars; secularism and republicanism. It began during the Ottoman Empire and can be traced back to the XVIIIth Century. The Ottomans have always been in close relations with the cultural entity which we call “Western Civilisation”. In fact, the Ottoman Empire was founded first and foremost as a state located mainly in Europe. The modern Republic of Turkey came into being after an independence struggle, fought against the “West”. Nevertheless, immediately after the war, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the founding fathers of the Republic did not hesitate to turn their face to this very West. For, with a clear vision they concluded that “progress” meant being a part of the universal civilisation represented then by the West.