Transcript: Bush Urges Mideast to Embrace Democracy

Following is the complete text of President Bush's speech Tuesday in Istanbul as a NATO summit closes there:

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you all very much.

Distinguished guests, the rector of this fine university, ladies and gentlemen, Laura and I are grateful for the warm and gracious hospitality that we've received these past three days in the Republic of Turkey.

I'm honored to visit this beautiful country where two continents meet, a nation that upholds great tradition and faces the future with confidence.

America is honored to call Turkey an ally and a friend.

Many Americans trace their heritage to Turkey. The Turks have contributed greatly to our national life, including most recently a lot of baskets for the Detroit Pistons for Mehmet Okur. I know you're proud of this son of your country and there's a lot of people in Detroit really grateful for his talents.

I'm grateful to my friend, the prime minister for his leadership and his hospitality.

I also want to thank my friend the president, President Sezer for his hospital.

These men and your country have hosted members of NATO in a historic time in our alliance. For most of its history, NATO existed to deter aggression from a powerful army at the heart of Europe.

In this century, NATO looks outward to new threats that gather in secret and bring sudden violence to peaceful cities.

We face terrorist networks that rejoice when parents bury their murdered children, or rejoice when bound men plead for mercy.

We face outlaw regimes that give aid and shelter to these killers and seek weapons of mass murder.

We face the challenges of corruption and poverty and disease, which throw whole nations into chaos and despair.

These are the conditions in which terrorism can survive.

Some on both sides of the Atlantic have questioned whether the NATO alliance still has a great purpose. To find that purpose, they only need to open their eyes. The dangers are in plain sight.

The only question is whether we will confront them or look away and pay a terrible cost.

Over the last few years, NATO has made its decision. Our alliance is restructuring to a post-threat that has risen beyond the borders of Europe.

NATO is providing security in Afghanistan.

NATO has agreed to help train the security forces of a sovereign Iraq, which is a great advantage and crucial success for the Iraqi people.

And in Istanbul we have dedicated ourselves to the advance of reform in the broader Middle East, because all people deserve a just government and because terror is not the tool of the free.

Through decades of the Cold War, our great alliance of liberty never failed in its duties, and we are rising to our duties once again.

The Turkish people understand the terrorists, because you have seen their work, even in the last few weeks. You have heard the sirens and witnessed the carnage and mourned the dead.

After the murders of Muslims, Christians and Jews in Istanbul last November, a resident of this city said of the terrorists, "They don't have any religion. They are friends of evil."

In one of the attacks, a Muslim woman lost her son Ahmet, her daughter-in-law Berta, and her unborn grandchild.