"Turkey's foreign policy understanding is based on the principle of having relations with all the states in our region on an equal footing," Davutoglu told reporters late on Tuesday in Libya, where he accompanies Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a visit.
Davutoglu was responding to media reports that he had told deputies of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) during a closed-door meeting last week that the government was pursuing a "neo-Ottoman" foreign policy in the Middle East and the Balkans, a former territory of the Ottoman Empire until the 20th century.
Davutoğlu said the media reports about his comments during the AK Party meeting were "taken out of context" and thus did not reflect the truth. “We are particularly very sensitive about this. When others use it, I have always warned that we do not consider it correct,” he added.
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