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President Erdoğan: We are determined to eliminate threats arising from Syria

 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held a press conference following the Presidential Cabinet meeting at the Presidential Complex.

“WE ARE DETERMINED TO ELIMINATE THREATS ARISING FROM SYRIA”

Wishing Allah’s mercy upon the police officers who died a martyr’s death in the PKK-YPG terrorist organization heinous attack in the Operation Euphrates Shield region, President Erdoğan said there is no tolerance left for the places inside Syria from which attacks targeting Turkey originate. “We are determined to eliminate threats arising from there either with the forces active in these areas or with our own means. The latest attack on our police and the harassments targeting our lands have broken the camel’s back. We will take the necessary steps to resolve these problems as soon as possible.”

“TURKEY HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL COUNTRIES IN CRISIS MANAGEMENT SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE PANDEMIC”

Noting that the fight against the pandemic was thoroughly addressed during the cabinet meeting, President Erdoğan said: “Turkey has been one of the most successful countries in crisis management since the beginning of the pandemic with its strong healthcare infrastructure as well as with its ability to keep production and supply processes functioning.”

Noting that a lot of countries are faced with a grave shortage of goods and products along with costliness at a time of exorbitant hikes in commodity and food prices, particularly in energy, President Erdoğan said: “Turkey, however, is either fully insulated from or slightly exposed to these problems thanks to its solid infrastructure and the timely measures it has taken. We allow the exorbitant hikes in globally priced products to be reflected inside the country only in a limited manner, thereby displaying solidarity with our citizens. We take all measures to protect employees and manufacturers who, nonetheless, experience problems due to price hikes.”

“TURKEY WILL GROW MUCH STRONGER ECONOMICALLY WITH EVERY PASSING DAY”

Voicing determination to ensure that Turkey continues to grow on the foundations of investment, production, export and employment, continuously expanding its positive current account balance, President Erdoğan said: “We have mobilized all our strategies and resources in this direction and thankfully started to get results step by step. From now on, Turkey will grow much stronger economically with every passing day.”

“While remedying the deficiencies in our projects for 2023, we have also started to gradually form our concrete goals related to our vision for 2053, which we will entrust to the youth,” President Erdoğan said. “The first of these is the Green Development Revolution, which we have announced a short while ago. In the period that kicked off with the Industrial Revolution and reached a peak with the information and technology revolution, countries that are defined today as developed consumed in a really careless manner resources of the environment and nature, which are humanity’s shared heritage. Today, the world is faced with the reality of a new climate change, one of the underlying causes of all the major fractures throughout history, which, unlike the previous ones, humanity brought on by its own hands this time. The images taken from space show what a big relief the partial slowdown witnessed during the pandemic in production and human mobility brought to our world in terms of balances in the nature. However, this ephemeral slowdown is by no means a solution to climate change.”

“WE ARE DETERMINED TO ASSUME A LEADING AND EFFECTIVE ROLE IN TACKLING THE CLIMATE CHANGE”

Drawing attention to ongoing international efforts to alleviate the bitter consequences of climate change, President Erdoğan pointed to Paris Climate Agreement as an outcome of these efforts and stated that Turkey, reserving its objections as regards fair burden sharing, ratified the agreement. “We will be sharing our country’s approaches to this issue with all the parties during the G-20 meeting in Italy and the UN Climate Change Conference in Scotland in a few weeks. We are determined to assume a leading and effective role in tackling this important crisis in front of humanity by placing the Green Development Revolution at the center of all our works in the period ahead.”

“WE HAVE TRANSITIONED TO A NEW STRATEGY OF ELIMINATING THE THREAT AT ITS SOURCE”

As regards Turkey’s fight against terror, President Erdoğan stated: “First of all, we have changed our security strategies. We have transitioned to a new strategy of locating and eliminating the threat at its source instead of confronting terrorist organizations inside our borders. To this end, we have consolidated our national unity and solidarity, employing both our military and diplomatic power. We fight terrorism in addition to terrorists.”

Stressing that Turkey also elevated its fight against narcotics, primary source of financing for terrorism, to the highest level in its history, President Erdoğan underscored that the PKK terrorist organization logistically leads the transport of opium to Europe, the cultivation and production of which increased by 20 times following the US occupation of Afghanistan. The President added that PKK members also run the logistics of the transport to the Middle East of synthetic drugs produced in advanced laboratories in Europe.

“We have dealt heavy blows to this traffic by tightly controlling our borders and aggravating the punishments for drug-related crimes,” the President stressed. “Just as we neutralized terrorist organizations in our country by destroying their human and financial resources, we will also do the same to the terror corridors sought to be established along our borders.” 

“WE EXPECT REFUGEES’ TARGET COUNTRIES, PARTICULARLY EUROPE, TO TAKE MORE RESPONSIBILITIES”

Highlighting the new strategies and practices Turkey has recently implemented in migration management, President Erdoğan said: “Turkey has prevented Europe from enduring a refugee influx which it would fail to cope with. However, it is no longer possible for us to shoulder this burden all by ourselves. It is high time for all to acknowledge that the issue has reached a level where it cannot be solved solely through financial burden sharing, even though the promises given to us have yet to be fully honored. We expect refugees’ target countries, particularly Europe, to take more responsibilities in a more realistic and sincere manner.”

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