President Erdoğan on Show TV-Habertürk TV-Bloomberg HT joint live broadcast
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made remarks and answered questions on current issues in a joint interview with Show TV, Habertürk TV and Bloomberg HT.
During the interview, held at the Presidential Pavilion at Yıldız Palace in Istanbul, President Erdoğan made remarks on current issues, including Israeli Prime Minister’s recent statements via social media and the purchase of S-400 air defense systems and F-35 fighter jets.
Touching upon the upcoming local elections slated for March 31, President Erdoğan stressed: “We will continue to implement policies, which will further increase our people’s prosperity, with concrete steps.”
RAID ON THE AL-AQSA MOSQUE
In response to a question regarding Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s statements against him via social media, President Erdoğan referred to the upcoming elections in Israel, noted that the Israeli administration is ill-bred enough to enter mosques with boots and oppressive enough to persecute women and children there. Drawing attention to the nearly ten thousand children, women and elderly people in Israeli prisons, President Erdoğan said that there is no freedom of religion and freedom of thought in Israel. “The only country in the world that categorizes its citizens as first-class and second-class is Israel,” President Erdoğan further stressed, adding that they condemn this racist approach of Israel’s. President Erdoğan also pointed to the silence of some Western countries, which he said raise hell at any small incident that occurs in Turkey, against Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statements and the raid on the al-Aqsa Mosque, adding that it is a holy shrine not only for Muslims but also for the Christian world.
“WHAT MATTERS PRIMARILY TO US IS TURKEY’S SECURITY”
Answering a question on the purchase of S-400 air defense systems and F-35 fighter jets, President Erdoğan, with regard to F-35s, said the relevant military staff is currently being trained in the U.S., and that they expect the jets to be delivered in Malatya by November. “As I always stress, what matters primarily to us is Turkey’s security, we will never compromise on Turkey’s security issue,” the President underlined, adding that they must take necessary measures against what he described as real threats originating from across Turkey’s southern borders. Also mentioning the purchase of S-400 air defense systems, President Erdoğan, drawing attention to Russia’s positive approaches in terms of interest rates and joint production, underscored that it is already out of the question for Turkey to step back on this issue.
