BOSTON - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that he was a conservative democrat.
Erdogan, who is paying a visit to the United States, replied to questions of reporters before his conference at Boston's Harvard University.
Upon a question, Erdogan stated that he thought that an ethnically based political structure in Iraq would be unhealthy for the country and noted that in the same way, a structure which was based on religious sects was not correct. He said that those issues should be taken into consideration for the future of Iraq.
When asked how much military affected policy of his political party, Erdogan said that there was a civil government in power in Turkey and stressed that the mission of army was described in the Constitution.
When a reporter claimed that former governments used force to suppress rebellions in Southeastern Anatolia Region and asked how the current government would react to those things, Erdogan said, ''I think that the question is wrong. I consider those things actions of terrorist organizations. Those terrorist organizations are trying to make our citizens of Kurdish origin their supporters by carrying out racism.'' He added that Turkey lost its 40 thousand people due to terrorism.
Asked what their approach would be in case the European Union (EU) put recognition of so-called Armenian genocide as a condition, Erdogan said, ''it is wrong to show a thing which did not occur as if it had occurred and carry it to the future. Historians should deal with the issue. Let's talk about the future. Both Armenian and Turkish people had died in the past. Our foreign ministry hold meetings three times with Armenian foreign minister. We have opened our airports to Armenian airways. Turkish Airlines (THY) make transportation currently. After those positive developments, it is wrong to talk about genocide. People should serve peace.''
(EÖ-UK) 31.01.2004