If I had requested the meteorological administration to provide me with the perfect weather that I wanted and I wished for last Sunday, it would not have been any different from the weather in Istanbul that day. It was a weekend holiday, and I visited along with some friends some of the most famous landmarks of the city, including the Hagia Sophia Museum, the Museum of Topkapi, as well as the nearby Ottoman mosques, houses, and palaces. We found ourselves in the midst of a sea full of tourists, which reminded me of my agony in Disney World in Florida as we were queuing to get on a ride that lasted but a few minutes in the end. I and a group of Arab friends were in Istanbul to take part in the opening ceremony of the Al-Turkiya TV Station, an Arab-language channel directed to the Arab world and Arabs everywhere. In fact, its director general Ibrahim Shaheen is one of the most prominent figures of the AKP (Justice and Development Party). We stood in the tourists' queues on that beautiful day, and then attended the opening ceremony of the TV station in the evening which saw the participation of the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In truth, the prime minister did not just attend for half an hour as a ‘duty visit'; instead, he stayed with us for four hours and appeared to be happy with the programs of the launching day. I together with my friend Fahmi Houaidi interviewed the prime minister. Although the interview was supposed to last for half an hour, it went on for about a full hour. He was answering each question in detail, and with clear self confidence that spared him the need for any evasiveness. The interview was shown on television, and the newspapers have already quoted it, so I do not need to repeat anything here. However, I want to add some glimpses from the interview: in the beginning, I told him that I do not know what I should ask him because I find myself, and perhaps for the first time in my career as a journalist, to be in total agreement with everything he said during the speech that he gave at the launch of the TV station. I was also in agreement with the statement he gave as he was withdrawing from a session in Davos in January 2009, in protest against the impostor Shimon Peres' speech and in solidarity with the people of Gaza against the barbaric Israeli onslaught. I told the prime minister that I was attending that historic session, but what I did not tell him was that the wife of a friend, who is a former Arab prime minister, has been raising the Turkish flag along with her country's flag in a corner of her lounge ever since that fateful day. In my line of work, I am not the type of people to be easily deceived. I was born with a tendency to be suspicious of people. This then grew with me by virtue of my profession and by coming in close contact with politicians, both Arab and foreign. Nevertheless, I found Recep Tayyip Erdogan to be rather sincere in his positions regarding Jerusalem, the Noble Sanctuary and Gaza and its people, as his party, Justice and Development Party has a firm Islamist background. In fact, the prime minister requested that Al-Turkiya become an instrument of good will between the Turks and the Arabs, describing them as being like the fingers of the same hand, or like bone and flesh. He thus stressed that ‘our pasts are one, and our futures are one', adding in Arabic that “the neighbour comes before one's own home”. He also emphasized the common destiny among Istanbul, Ankara, Cairo, Beirut, Amman, Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, and every other Arab and Turkish city. I was pleased to hear him make references to Mahmoud Darwish, and to adorn his speech with Arabic words, as he stressed that “we went to the West without turning our backs on the East”. Following the ascent of the Justice and Development Party to power in 2002, I wrote in this column – prior to any stances declared by the party while in power – that the Erdogan government is probably the best Turkish government for Arab-Turkish relations since at least half a century ago or so. Today, I still hold this opinion, and even say that all what the Turkish government has done in seven years only confirms the fact that it is a friendly ally that not only contents itself with expressing sympathy with Arab causes, but also shows strong solidarity with them as though they were Turkish causes. The Turkish stance regarding Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the settlements for instance is not in the least less potent than the best of the declared Arab stances [in this regard]. Turkey, under the Erdogan government, is also on good terms with Iran. Thus, the Turkish prime minister did not contradict - during the interview - what I know from his official statements regarding this subject; he prefers a diplomatic engagement with Iran regarding its nuclear program, and believes that any other alternative will be disastrous to the Middle East and the rest of the world. I told him that I wished that Iran were lying and that it is indeed building a nuclear bomb, and also wished that Turkey were seeking to procure nuclear arms, as well as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and every country in the region. In my opinion, a nuclear arms race is the only way to motivate the major powers to seriously seek to rid the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction, and of the Israeli nuclear arsenal that threatens everybody. I know that this view will not be to the liking of many people, but nonetheless, I insist on its sensibility, until those who oppose this view prove me wrong. 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