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President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke at the AKP Extended Provincial Chairs Meeting at the Central Office of his party today (July 26).
In his speech, Erdoğan addressed a series of issues including Turkey's purchase of S-400 defense missile system from Russia and the ongoing tension with the US over this purchase, the interest rate cut introduced by Central Bank yesterday and the new political party expected to be founded by AKP Co-founder Ali Babacan and former President Abdullah Gül.
Some highlights from his speech are as follows.
'We are not the West'
"We have to establish stability in [Syria's] Idlib. Neither the regime, not the US or Europe may not be troubled by that, but we urgently need it.
"They tell us 'You feed so many refugees, well done.' OK, you say it. But, give us the money that you promised us then. It is the West, but we are not.
'You aren't giving us F-35s? Okay then'
"We have made our deals with Russia. We said, 'We have purchased them, we are purchasing them, but if you will still give us, then we will buy patriots.' You are still not giving us by bringing forward different proposals.
"Sorry, but we need to take all our precautions in the most ideal way. You are not giving us F-35s? Okay then. I am sorry, but we will take our precautions about that too and turn to somewhere else.
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'If they take a step towards us, we will take a hundred'
"We have not forgotten that the EU has openly broken the promises that it gave us in full accession negotiations. Though we have fulfilled our obligations in the refugee issue, we know that the opposite side rests on its promises. It definitely needs to be considered and realized by them.
"The increasing racism and antagonism towards Turks and Islam in Europe is threatening the future of this old continent. Turkey is still the most friendliest candidate of Europe. And we want to remain so. Only if we saw that the Europeans had the same intentions... To the one who takes one step towards us, we will take a thousand steps.
'Interest rate cut is not enough'
"We were long arguing that the 24-percent interest rate is extremely high for our country. For years, I have talked about how disturbed I am by that. But, unfortunately, we could not communicate it to the previous Central Bank Presidents. No matter what we said, they proceeded by delaying tactics.
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"Yesterday, Central Bank decreased the interest rates by 425 basis points. What happened? Have we gone bankrupt? No, the markets have reacted quite normally. It was what was supposed to happen anyway. Even that is not enough. It needs to continue gradually till the end of the year.
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'Inflation will fall as well'
"The decrease in interest rates will also enliven our recessing economy. I view the interest rate decision taken yesterday as an historic turning point. We will see that inflation will fall as well.
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'They will pay the price for their betrayal'
"We will hold the 7th Ordinary Grand Congress in autumn. They say there are some who are founding a party... Don't worry about them. The ones who are in betrayal will pay the price for their betrayal."
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(TP/SD)
