NEW YORK - Mehmet Simsek, Turkish State Minister, said Monday that there is a war of power in Turkey among "globalists" who understand globalization and "nationalists" who do not understand globalization and actually reject it.
Minister Simsek delivered a speech at an international conference titled "Turkey After 2008" held in New York on Monday.
Simsek touched on the closure case filed against the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party in his speech.
"Turkey became an open society during the rule of the AK Party. During AK Party government, Turkey`s trade volume tripled and foreign investments increased by 20 fold. Yes, there is a war in Turkey. The war is one of power between the globalists and nationalists. This war is among those who want to preserve the status quo and those who want Turkey to be an open society with basic rights and freedoms for individuals. This war will go on. This has nothing to do with what the AK Party is doing. The supporters of the status quo had to deal with the consequences of performance based on achievements. All privatization efforts in Turkey meet opposition. There are enemies of global capital in Turkey," Simsek stressed.
"AK Party supports globalization, open society, basic rights and freedoms for all and secularism. Secularism is important in Turkey because Turkey is a country of multi-ethnicity and multi-religion. We have nothing to hurt secularism in Turkey," Simsek noted.
"I have full faith in Turkey, and Turkey will continue to be loyal to reforms," Simsek told.
In reference to Turkey`s EU process, Simsek said that Turkey has completed negotiations in six chapters out of 35.
"The EU can not disregard Turkey. I am sure of that. However, if the EU does not want Turkey in one way or another, this would not be a great problem. Turkey will keep on progressing," Simsek said.
Simsek remarked that Turkey is strong enough to absorb foreign shocks.
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