DAVOS (AA) - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday, ''Turkey is in favor of peace.''
Prime Minister Erdogan, who is currently in Davos town of Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum, partook in a luncheon on ''the Future of the Secular Crescent''.
When asked about allegations saying that Turkey might intervene in northern part of Iraq, Prime Minister Erdogan said, ''Turkey has always been in favor of peace. However, Turkey has some sensitivities about its rights. For instance, presence of terrorist organization PKK in north of Iraq causes problems.''
''We helped the United States in Afghanistan under its fight against terrorism. Also, we sent humanitarian aid to Iraq. We said that we expected the United States to intervene in the situation in the north. We have still been waiting for it. We are not positive towards settlement of PKK in northern part of Iraq. PKK has been continuing to send terrorists to Turkey from northern Iraq. We have been continuing to monitor developments,'' he said.
-IRAN'S NUCLEAR ENERGY-
Upon a question about Iran's capacity of nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Erdogan said, ''I held talks with Iranian president, prime minister and other officials. They told me that they would use Iran's nuclear energy for humanitarian purposes. Russia, Israel and Pakistan also have nuclear energy. It is not sincere to talk only about Iran to this end. We have also been maintaining our studies on nuclear energy clearly since conditions have entailed us to do so.''
-EU-
Referring to Turkey's EU membership process, Prime Minister Erdogan said, ''after Turkey's accession to the EU, the EU will become the center of compromise among civilizations. Britain's membership was vetoed for two times in the past. I believe that the EU will think in a quite different way in the next ten years.''
2005-01-28