A two-day workshop discussing the latest developments in North Africa and the Arab countries, titled “Transition from Dictatorship to Democracy,” began in İstanbul on Thursday.

The workshop, jointly organized by the Turkish Prime Ministry's Office of Public Diplomacy and the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (CMCU) at Georgetown University, is taking place at the Prime Ministry's Dolmabahçe Office.

The Arab Spring is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world and North Africa. Since Dec. 18, 2010, there have been revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt and a civil war in Libya, resulting in the fall of its regime. Civil uprisings and major protests are also taking place in other Arab countries, such as Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Algeria, Jordan, Morocco, Oman and Saudi Arabia.

Sixty high-profile participants from Europe, the United States, the Arab world and Turkey are attending the workshop, where the Arab Spring will be discussed extensively.

Tunisian leader Rashid al-Ghannushi will attend the workshop's Friday session.

On the first day of the workshop on Thursday, Public Diplomacy Coordinator İbrahim Kalın and Georgetown University CMCU founding director John L. Esposito delivered speeches.

Speaking to the Anatolian news agency prior to the workshop, Kalın said a new page has been turned in the Arab world and consecutive public revolutions have destroyed many of the myths about Arabs in the minds of the people.

“What has been said for Arabs for years? There were some orientalist, European-centered myths suggesting that Arab people are pleased to be ruled by autocratic regimes, they are people who are not the actors of their history. The Arab revolutions invalidated all these myths,” he said.

“We are just at the beginning of the beginning. Now, dictators are gone but the old structures of the past and the main elements of the old regime still continue their presence. The change of this will take time.”

Kalın also dwelled on Turkey's role in these countries' transition to democracy and said recent visits of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Egypt, Tunisia and Libya showed that all the political actors in these countries want to benefit from Turkey's experience of democracy.

“These political actors want to benefit from Turkey's experience regarding the issues of transition to democracy, democratization, civilian-military relationships, economic development, supremacy of law and active foreign policy,” Kalın said.