Arabic → English transcript

Your political opponents also accuse you of

selling Turkey to Western and Arab investors and to

the Israelis. I am not selling, I am marketing,

and I will continue to market.

These people are ignorant about this subject

and they do not know what marketing means. We tell them, learn and study

management, politics is marketed, social life and the economy are marketed,

you have to do that. None of them knows what marketing means,

they think marketing only means marketing cattle and sheep.

The truth is that politics is marketed, and social life is marketed,

and it is possible to market the country’s potential in the best way,

and to market your country’s name in global markets in the best manner

and make it known. They say that you grant the Israelis in particular

greater privileges,

including to the investor Sami Ofer,

whose connection to you you denied, then it was exposed by the

media afterward. No, there is nothing of the sort,

and it seems this issue has also been reflected incorrectly here.

We do not agree to any action unless there are interests At

least jointly. And we never enter into any work in which we have no interest.

And there is no doubt that any foreign investor who intends to invest in my country

has every right to carefully calculate his own interest, and this is his

natural right. And Ofer submitted a bid in the tender like the others

and won the tender, because he submitted the best offers.

That is all there is to it.

But does the strong entry of the Israelis into the Turkish market pose economic

risks for you? We fear nothing. If you are a

strong country and you have no problems,

then why would you fear such a thing? On the contrary, they add strength

to our economy. What is the nature of your relationship with the Israelis now?

We now have military and economic cooperation and relations,

as well as political and commercial.

And the volume of our trade with them currently amounts to about five

billion dollars.

Last May, Israel’s foreign minister, Yitzhak Shalom, said that Turkey

plays the role of mediator between Israel and the Arab and Islamic countries.

After that you arranged A meeting with the Pakistani and Israeli

foreign ministers in Turkey.

Are you really acting as mediators,

or as godfathers between the Arabs and the Israelis?

If we are assigned such a mission, we carry it out with great enthusiasm.

And if there is a need, then why should we not meet it? The duty of every

state is not to encourage

hostilities and increase them in the world, but to increase friendships.

Succeeding in that is more beneficial. And now the Israeli- Palestinian

conflict has been going on for many years. Has anything been achieved?

How do you assess what Israel is doing now against the Palestinians?

I now consider the withdrawal from Gaza a positive step, whatever the

objective behind it.

And it is a positive step toward implementing the Road Map. And I consider the

withdrawal from part of the West Bank a positive step, and it must be supported.

But Israeli practices have not stopped. On the Palestinian side, similar steps

must also be taken,

so that we can reach a result as soon as possible.

Otherwise, this situation will continue. And you get no result. And you see tears,

blood, and the dead every day.

Will the situation continue like this? I think that nothing

can be achieved through talking from afar.

Are you looking forward to a strategic role for Turkey in the region,

like the role of an older brother, for example?

Right now you are touring the Gulf states,

you have paid a visit to Pakistan.

Are you planning a bigger strategic role?

We have prepared ourselves for this role for some time,

and as a result of that preparation we assumed

a role in the Greater Middle East and North Africa project.

We are holding a parallel presidency with Italy, Turkey, and Yemen.

Is this role coming from Turkey itself or arranged together

with the United States of America and Israel? No, this is not limited to

America alone, because in addition to eight different countries, the D- 8 group,

Turkey was invited as a partner state, and that is how it joined.

But this project has died,

the D- 8 project is effectively dead, it has not moved for a very long time.

This project has not died among these countries and has not ended,

and these countries are still actively moving in mutual coordination in a good way.

We are the ones saying this,

there is no need to deceive ourselves,

because these countries conduct relations among themselves in the best way for

their own interests.

As for us, we just wear out our mouths for nothing.

Let us look at ourselves and at what we are getting,

have we obtained anything or not?

The Islamic world has always been deceiving itself for years on this point.

Let us first see where we have reached,

when we look at the Greater Middle East and North Africa Project,

we ask about our aim. What is our level of prosperity?

Are we still busy with conflicts and wars?

What is the situation in Iraq and in Israel and what is it in Syria?

And in contrast to that,

I ask, as an Arab world or an Islamic world,

do you have any settlement for the existing problems? There is no settlement,

we must first talk about how to find a settlement,

no result can be reached by running away from the negotiating table.

Even if the solution is complete subordination to Israel and America?

What do you mean by subordination? Are you unable to talk about

the facts and explain them? This is the issue.

If I am able to do what I believe in and to say the truths I believe in,

then I will continue on my path. And if I believe that I will obtain a result

that is good for me from such a project, then I will do what must be done and

play that role.

We now, as Turkey, believe in the benefit of such a project. And from this

standpoint, we believe that we have carried out the tasks required of us,

and we do not feel embarrassed about that. We have taken some steps and covered

some distance.

I want to tell you something, they withdrew from Gaza, so what if they had

not withdrawn? Under pressure, they withdrew

because they were under the hammer of the Palestinian resistance.

And now they are asking the Palestinians

the Palestinian Authority to secure them.

Do not deceive yourselves,

if they had not withdrawn from there, the current march would never have begun,

And for the previous situation to continue. I ask you, steps must be

taken in order to provide housing in Gaza,

Come on, take these steps. What will you do now?

What is your strength and capability? Come on, do something.

We cannot do anything without getting support from another party.

We all have to do this together,

otherwise nothing will happen. Therefore we must do something that is

clearly based on reason and logic.

We must not be bitten from the place where we have already been

bitten before. We must define that well, and we must adopt reason,

science, and experience as the starting point for our action.

And if we set these aside and move emotionally, then we will always be the losers.