ANKARA - Idris Naim Sahin, the Secretary General of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) said on Thursday that Turkey had to evaluate its status and influence in its region and re-determine its interests according to changing circumstances.
''It is not possible for us to keep silent or ignore the things that are happening in our region,'' said Sahin after the AK Party Central Decision and Executive Committee meeting.
Noting that the most important problem of Turkey was economy, Sahin said that macro and micro balances in economy started to recover.
Commenting that great success was achieved in fight with terrorism with the Reassociation Law, Sahin said that terrorism reached its minimum level except certain isolated incidents.
Sahin stated that Turkey coped with the Iraqi fight with the minimum loss and by increasing its respectability, Sahin said that ''whatever the interests of our nation and state are, they are being done and they will be done. We must stress that Turkey supports the political, administrative and military integrity of Iraq. Division within Iraq, instability and a problematic structure in Iraq is negative for us. In that respect, the government closely monitors the developments in the region and continues its studies. No body should doubt that our government will undertake all sorts of studies in line with its interests.''
(Öª-AÖ) 07.08.2003