* Photo: Mustafa Kamacı / AA
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President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke at the weekly group meeting of his party today (November 5). Touching on a series of issues in domestic and foreign politics, Erdoğan made the following statements in brief:
'They could not foresee what crazy Turks would do'
"We have taken the economy of Turkey quite a step further. Between the years of 2013 and 2018, our economy grew by 5.6 percent.
"In terms of purchasing power parity, we are the 13th largest economy of the world. Turkey is among the largest 20 countries in that regard. It means something. We can move upward in that list with the slightest move.
"We have increased our exports from 36 billion dollars to 171 billion dollars. Our current account balance has posted a surplus of 5 billion dollars for the first time in our history. We have reached 42 million in tourism, we will reach 50 million by the end of the year.
"The head of the Main Opposition Party [CHP - Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu] was speaking about the International Monetary Fund (IMF) the other day. We have cleared it. We have nothing to do with the IMF. They are still looking for ways to smear us. You cannot do it.
"You should know your place. Why? Because you have neither the power nor the strength to do it. You are the ones who inflicted the IMF upon us. Turkey is not indebted to the IMF now. IMF asked for a loan of 5 billion Euros from us. I told the friends to give it. Then, the IMF saw that it could not foresee what these crazy Turks would do, thinking that we could indeed give the money, they gave up taking the money.
'We asked for help from the whole world, but...'
"I am calling on to the whole West. Asala terrorist organization launched around 100 attacks. Did we hear the slightest stance taken by the US and the Western world in the face of this so-called Armenian terrorist organization? No. Again, in the 1970s, we suffered a lot from terror incidents. Rather than praising Turkey for this process, it is seen as a useful tool by the ones who have designs on our country.
"In fact, when terrorist threats intensified, we asked for help from the whole world and told all leaders to form a safe zone along our Syria border. Everyone responded positively, but no one did anything. When terrorists started to violate our borders with mortar shells, they took the air defense systems away from our country, instead of supporting us. They sat back and watched while several terrorist elements were doing all these.
"In every incident threatening the peace of our nation, they took the side of the vandals, rather than our side. Some Arab countries expressed their support for the coup plotters without even waiting for the morning.
'We were subjected to a hidden embargo'
"In Operation Olive Branch, we cleared Afrin, we saved it from DAESH threat. This time, they kept silent and tried to criticize our country. We first looked at who said it, then what they said... We did not pay any heed to it.
"In the meanwhile, they kept on trying to drive us into a corner in the international arena with all types of pretexts. They wanted to persuade us about the safe zone. This corridor would pose a threat to our country, we did not let it happen. We were literally subjected to a hidden embargo in the field of defense industry."
Concluding his remarks, Erdoğan said, "They hindered the sale of any type of ammunition to us" and added, "We overcame these obstacles one by one. As they did not sell the air defense systems that we were in dire need of, we purchased them from Russia." (EMK/SD)
