Erdogan: Tendencies Of Terrorism And Violence Are Moves Away From All Beliefs And Views

ANKARA - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan defined on Monday tendencies of terrorism and violence as moves away from all beliefs and views, particularly from all divine religions.
Addressing the nation on television, Erdogan asked, ``how many more victims we should give to terrorism in order to see what kind of a global evil terrorism has become and to see that it can only be curbed by joint decision of humanity.``
Recalling last week`s bomb attacks in Istanbul, Erdogan said that many citizens lost their lives in those inhuman attacks.
Erdogan noted that the bombs not only hit innocent people passing by the site of blasts, but also 2000-year history of humanity.
Those who produced spaceships which helped humanity to learn about the space and bombs which destroyed lives used same technological means, Erdogan said.
Erdogan said, ``this is a war between justice and injustice, goodness and badness, right and wrong. It is our right to expect everybody having common sense to be beside justice, goodness and the right in this war. There are circles who ask why we don`t put some adjectives before terrorism when we condemn terrorism. There are people who ask us why we say `terrorism` but why we don`t say `Islamic terrorism.` I should say that as nation, we don`t deserve these suspicious approaches.``
``When there is not any single reason which will necessitate such an implication and when we are exerting efforts to capture and try assailants of these attacks, I would like to call on people assuming this attitude towards us to review their democratic maturity. This interrogation is not a rightful one. This expectation is not polite and democratic,`` Erdogan said.
Erdogan pointed out that terrorism had only one definition for them and they condemned every movement, action, view and intention which abided by that definition.
When condemning terrorism, they were in an effort to clearly show the inhuman violence caused by terrorism, Erdogan stressed.
Erdogan said that he thought that heading towards other definitions which might open that concept into discussion would have two unacceptable problems.
``One of these problems is the danger that we may cause if we put any word before the word of terrorism. There are values which are considered sacred and in which people believe around the world. When we take these values under discussion, we should not forget the fact that there are innocent majorities we may hurt in the world. When we are displaying marginal deviations which may occur in every group of belief and view in modern world, we should refrain from hurting integrity of belief and view which have nothing to do with these deviations. Tendencies of terrorism and violence are moves away from all beliefs and views, particularly from all divine religions. Any terrorist movement can be connected with any divine religion and belief. Moreover, Islam which is given its name by peace and well-being can never be associated with terrorism. These are concepts which can never be uttered together,`` Erdogan said.
Erdogan noted, ``Islam can never be used as an adjective of terrorism. I should say that we should also pay attention to sacred values of other people and religions.``
Associating terrorism with other adjectives would also cause another problem, Erdogan stated.
Erdogan said, ``we should accept that all groups have become more open to bad influences due to communication facilities. And, it has been seen that the extremist views and attitudes don`t face any difficulties in finding criminal types who can serve their own intentions.``
Therefore, everybody who spoke on terrorism should know that he/she was speaking in a global field, Erdogan stated.
When using sacred adjectives which expressed a whole of values, possible effects of every word should be well-estimated, Erdogan noted.
Erdogan stressed that associating terrorism with any belief, culture or identity could trigger reactions of not only supporters of that belief, but also people who were against that belief and said that those reactions could never be estimated beforehand.
``We have such an important duty and sensitive responsibility. Therefore, we firstly weigh our words and then, we speak,`` Erdogan added.
ERDOGAN: THOSE WHO THINK THEY COULD HARM UNITY AND SOLIDARITY OF TURKEY WILL SOONER OR LATER UNDERSTAND THEY HAVE MADE A MISTAKE
Erdogan said that there was not any cultural heritage in any part of Anatolia which was molded by blood and hatred.
Erdogan noted that nobody had achieved to break people, who had co-existed in peace and well-being in Turkey, apart so far and could never reach that target.
Everybody had a question in his/her mind why those barbarous intrigues were started when everything was becoming better in Turkey, Erdogan stated.
Erdogan said that the answer of the question was hidden in itself.
Noting that those intrigues were started today, Erdogan said, ``because, Turkey has started to become strong again. Because, our economy has gained dynamism to develop, because, production re-started and because a multi-dimensional compromise culture has been adopted by all parts of the society. And, because, Turkey becomes hopeful again. This development of Turkey makes circles who have difficulties with these values and targets uneasy and therefore, they try to stop and affect us negatively.``
Erdogan went on saying, ``we will never be affected by these ugly intrigues and fall into this trap. Those who think that they can deviate us from our path will again take their lessons. I have confidence in strength and common sense of our state. We will heal our wounds again hand in hand. We will continue our path without any intimidation. And, Turkey will continue to walk towards its ideal of contemporary civilizations with determination. We will be alert and prudent and we will never lose our courage and determination.``
Mission coming from history and sensitive balances of region where Turkey was situated forced them to stand on their feet and increase power of Turkey whatever the conditions were, Erdogan stated.
Erdogan expressed full belief that they would overcome all those difficulties and make use of atmosphere of confidence and tranquility provided by democracy.
Turkey would continue to be an example for its region and world and inspire others for peace, hope and democracy, Erdogan said.
Erdogan stated that Turkish Republic would continue its path as democratic, secular and social state of law from now on.
``We all know that the main aim of terrorism is to cause fear and uneasiness and affect decision-making mechanisms. If we have a tendency in panic and fear after such attacks which will harm our normal living conditions, we will help those who have these bad intentions,`` Erdogan said.
Erdogan added, ``the maximum advantage terrorist networks hope to gain is deterioration of psychological balances of mass groups and end of social common sense. We should be very careful about this. Therefore, we will be more determined and willing to exert our efforts from now on.``
ERDOGAN: ``I WANT TO TELL ONE MORE TIME THAT WE WILL NEVER YIELD TO TERRORISM AND WILL NOT DRAW THE FUTURE OF TURKEY IN A SHAPE THAT WILL SERVE THE DESIRES OF FOCUSES HAVING BAD INTENTS`` (3)
Noting that security forces were exerting efforts to find the perpetrators of terrorist attacks and reveal secret points, Erdogan said that very intensive activities were carried on to learn and prevent such incidents before they were launched.
Erdogan said that they have noticed many formations that acted with terrorist intents on preparation step within this process, but it was very difficult to completely prevent such terrorist activities especially when their international links were taken into consideration.
Erdogan said that they were following criminals with all of their facilities and added that they were carrying on important studies regarding international cooperation and they were determined on this issue.
Erdogan thanked all inner and external friends of Turkey which shared the pains just after the attacks.
Erdogan said that Turkey had the difficulty of not seeing the determination of itself against the threats in other countries which were walking on the same path to same humanity ideals. He added that Turkey wanted justice and peace for everybody.
Erdogan celebrated Feast of Ramadan and wished good days full of peace and well-being.
Erdogan said that terrorism had appeared in every part of world and would continue to appear and Turkey would heal the pains of terrorism because Turkish history, culture and values never allowed terrorism.

(GC-AÖ) 24.11.2003