Recep Tayyip Erdogan

The prime minister spoke to Euronews to mark the launch of the channel's broadcasts in Turkish. His interview was aired on 30 January.

Armenia

One topic covered in the interview was the rapprochement process between Turkey and Armenia.

Asked what action Turkey intended to take, following its protest at the wording of the Armenian Constitutional Court's ruling on the rapprochement protocols, Erdogan said, according to Euronews' English translation: "Well, we appear to have got off to an unhealthy start. What are we negotiating about? What are we going to do? Armenia should once again take this into consideration, because we fulfilled our protocol commitments. Both sides have road maps. The process will continue. We are fully prepared and sincere, and will proceed in the same way as we have so far."

Relations with Israel and Arab world

Erdogan said Turkey had done its best to build good relations with Israel. He criticized the recent incident in which the Israeli deputy foreign minister tried to humiliate Turkey's ambassador on TV and objected to Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks in November that Tel-Aviv trusted France but not Turkey to mediate in relations with Syria.

"Israel should give some thought to what it would be like to lose a friend like Turkey in the future," Erdogan said. "The way they recently treated our ambassador has no place in international politics. We have done our best for Israel-Syria relations. But now we see Benjamin Netanyahu saying ‘I do not trust Erdogan, but I trust Sarkozy’. Do you have to give a name? This is diplomatic inexperience, too. Because when you say this… How can I trust you if you say you don’t trust me? We have important ongoing agreements between us. How can these agreements be kept going in this climate of mistrust? I think Israel had better take another look at its relations with its neighbours if it believes it is a world power."

Erdogan defended his criticism of Israel's bombing of Gaza: "When innocent civilians are ruthlessly killed, struck by phosphorus bombs, infrastructure is demolished in bombing and people are forced to live in an open-air prison - we cannot see this as compatible with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, simply human rights, and we cannot close our eyes to all this happening."

EU membership

The Turkish prime minister said that Turkey would persist in its EU membership bid until such time as all the EU states said they would not accept Turkey as a member.

“Unfortunately, some of the EU member states are not acting honestly," Erdogan told Euronews. "This is where a problem arises. Why am I saying this? Because they are trying to corner Turkey with conditions that do not exist in the acquis communautaire [the body of EU law]. This is really wrong. We have to bear in mind that we leaders are mortal but that nations are not. A leader’s negative approach towards another country would negatively affect people’s perception in that country about the country of that leader."

Asked whether he was talking about French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Erdogan replied: "Yes. One cannot easily comprehend what Mr Sarkozy does. But no matter what they do, or what kind of obstacles they put in front of us, we will keep walking, patiently. There is, certainly, an end to this. That will be the moment at which ALL the EU members say ‘We are not accepting Turkey.’ We will not stop until they say this."

"The EU should not become a Christian club," Erdogan continued. "The EU should not take part in a campaign of Islamophobia. Any country doing this must be warned. For instance, as the prime minister of Turkey, I am a leader who has wholeheartedly condemned anti-Semitism and accepted it as a crime against humanity. But I am sensitive, too, when it comes to Islamophobia. Because I am a Muslim. And I can never tolerate anti-Islamism. As a Muslim, I defend my stance for as long as I must. No one CAN reconcile Islam with terror. And I, as a Muslim, and the prime minister of the Turkish Republic, cannot say ‘yes’ to anyone who dares to do so."

Cyprus

Erdogan also criticized the EU for its stance on the divided island of Cyprus.

"Until now, the EU has not been honest on the Cyprus issue, either," Erdogan said.

He said that the majority of voters in the north accepted the United Nations’ Annan Plan to reunite the island, while it was voters in the south that rejected it. "Who is the honest party in this picture? Northern Cyprus. And the EU bears a great deal of responsibility for the current deadlock over Cyprus. They made a historical error in accepting southern Cyprus into the EU."

"We are striving to resolve this issue this year," Erdogan continued. " And we want it to be resolved under the umbrella of the UN. We can even do this including all five of the parties concerned; By this I mean northern and southern Cyprus, Turkey, Greece and the UK. We can solve this all together. A few days ago, Gordon Brown called me and asked what we thought of the idea of ‘doing this together’. There is no problem for us. We can come together and talk. What matters on this issue is being fair. If we set about doing this as the guarantor states, we have to know what the guarantees are. We hope for this issue to be resolved this year."

Kurdish issue

Erdogan said that Turkey's recent initiative to settle ethnic problems by expanding the rights of ethnic minority citizens should not be viewed as a purely Kurdish initiative. 

"But calling it a Kurdish issue will undermine, weaken this project. This project is one of national unity and friendship. It is not concentrated only on the Kurds. It is a democratic initiative, and the Kurdish issue is just one of the ethnic problems. But, unfortunately, this was misunderstood by western society. Because if one considers this as a Kurdish issue exclusively then one is being disrespectful to other ethnic groups which make up Turkey and the Turkish nation. This plan, this project, covers all of them. We are working on other ethnic groups as well."


Euronews