*Photo: Halil Sağırkaya - Ankara/AA
Click to read the article in Turkish
Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has addressed farmers in an event that took place in the Presidential Palace, titled, "The Biggest Farmer Family is at the House of the Nation."
Mentioning the credits and the land given to the farmers, Erdoğan said it would be "a betrayal to the nation and the homeland to erect concrete masses on agricultural areas."
Here are some highlights from Erdoğan's speech:
"Concrete masses are a betrayal to homeland"
"As the government, we make every effort to support our farmers.
"Our country ranks first in Europe in terms of agricultural revenues.
"We declare plains that are used for agriculture and stock farming as protected areas. If we erect concrete masses in agricultural areas, we would betray the homeland and the nation. We already declared 258 plains are protected areas, we will make this humber 300 soon."
"Speculators are a national security problem"
"We won't let anyone to set their eyes on the labor of our producers and the food of our consumers. We regard the speculators in the agricultural sectors as a national security problem just as the terrorists on our borders.
"We aim to switch to planned production, decrease imports and increase exports in agriculture."
"This country became green with us"
"They raised hell through the lie that we cut trees. If this country is becoming green, it happened with us.
"We are realizing projects that the world watches with admiration one by one." (AS/VK)
