Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer opened the new legislative year in Ankara on Sunday with a wide-ranging speech to the parliamentary general assembly, touching on the press, the economy, population growth, and education.
Sezer argued that a free and impartial press is fundamental to democracy, saying journalists must remain independent of commercial and political pressures and should uphold individual rights. He urged Turkish media members to serve as guardians of republican and secular values.
On population, Sezer noted that although Türkiye's annual growth rate fell from 18.1 percent to 14.1 percent between 1990 and 2000, the country still leads European nations in that category. With the population projected to approach 90 million by 2025 and more than 20 million people already living in poverty, he called for stronger family planning policies.
The president also pressed for structural economic reforms and cautioned against privatization practices that he said were undermining the social-state principle, pointing to a trend among developed nations of blocking foreign purchases of strategically important assets.
Sezer warned that corruption remains a persistent problem across public institutions and called on all three branches of government to act decisively against it. He closed by advocating an expansion of compulsory education to 12 years, describing quality schooling as essential to national development.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in October 2006, in its own words.