ERDOGAN SLAMS RUSSIA, CHINA, IRAN OVER SYRIA IN KEY PARTY CONGRESS
Today’s Zaman
Sept 30 2012
Turkey
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Russia,
China and Iran, key supporters of Syria’s embattled President Bashar
al-Assad in his 19-month struggle to crush an uprising against his
12-year rule, to forsake supporting the Syrian regime and warned that
history will not forgive those who stand by the despotic regime.
“The Syrian regime is massacring its own people and 250,000 Syrians
have so far fled to neighboring countries, with approximately
90,000 taking refuge in Turkey,” Erdogan said in a historic speech
he delivered at the fourth ordinary congress of his ruling Justice
and Development Party (AK Party) in the Turkish capital on Sunday.
The prime minister, who has been one of Assad’s harshest critics,
called on Russia, China and Iran to change their stance on the crisis
in Syria and said history won’t forgive those who allow a massacre
to go on unabated.
The United States, European allies, Turkey and Gulf Arab states have
sided with the Syrian opposition while Iran, Russia and China have
backed Assad, whose family and minority Alawite sect have dominated
Syria for 42 years.
Erdogan addressed thousands of delegates in a sports arena on Sunday
at which his ruling AK Party is laying the groundwork for what it
hopes will be its continued domination of Turkish politics in the
years ahead.
In his lengthy speech, the Turkish prime minister touted the rising
power’s regional stature and strong economic growth and celebrated
a decade of electoral success for his ruling party.
His speech also touched on a vast array of issues from domestic
politics to foreign policy, from relations with Israel to domestic
civilian-military relations, but as one loyal AK Party activist said
privately, “He did not say anything new.”
Erdogan is scheduled to pick new officials to guide his AK Party in
local, presidential and general elections in the next three years
and announce policy goals for 2023, when the country will celebrate
its centenary.
The congress is being held amid an increase in attacks by the
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and challenges presented by the war
in neighboring Syria.
Thousands of visitors flocked to the Ankara Arena sports hall in the
early hours of the day to attend the fourth ordinary congress of the
party, which attracted 40,000 people, including hundreds of reporters,
delegates and foreign visitors.
The AK Party wants to turn the convention into a major show of
solidarity among the party rank and file while luring as many as 80
foreign dignitaries, including Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)
leader Massoud Barzani and Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi.
Yemeni Nobel peace laureate Tawakul Karman and the mother and sister
of Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian street vendor who triggered the
Arab Spring when he set himself on fire on Dec. 17, 2010, attended
Sunday’s congress as guests of honor.
The congress is being translated into English, French, Russian,
Portuguese and Arabic for foreign participants and events are live
outside the sports hall on a large screen for those who cannot get in.
Turkish TV channels are also broadcasting the congress live.
Shortly after he started his historic speech, Erdogan mentioned the
names of incumbent and former leaders of states to salute them.
Among the list of the dignitaries Erdogan saluted were Morsi;
Barzani; Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal; Iraq’s fugitive Vice President
Tariq al-Hashemi; Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Ä°rsen Kucuk;
Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab, Pakistan’s
most populous province; former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder;
and Rashid al-Ghannushi, the leader of the Tunisian moderate Islamic
party known as the Ennahda Movement.
Meshaal stood out as the most applauded foreign guest as the prime
minister saluted him.
In his speech, Erdogan emphasized how his government has improved
Turkey’s democratic standards and protected the rights of every
citizen living within its borders in the decade-long AK Party rule.
“Before we [the AK Party] came to power [in 2002], there was no
economic stability, no safety, no democracy in this country,” Erdogan
said in his address to the roughly 40,000 party members that filled
the sports hall.
“The era of coups in this country will never return again,” Erdogan
said amid applause. “Anyone who intervenes or tries to intervene in
democracy will sooner or later go in front of the people’s courts
and be made to account,” he added.
Earlier this month, a court sentenced more than 300 military officers
to long prison terms for attempting to topple the government in 2003
in a coup plan called Sledgehammer.
Erdogan said his party was an inspiration to all Muslim nations.
“In a country where the majority is Muslim, we let democracy rule in
its most advanced form and became an example for all Muslim countries,”
Erdogan told an audience that included Egypt’s new president, Mohammed
Morsi, who later addressed the crowd, praising Turkey’s achievements.
Many people applauded Erdogan enthusiastically and some were moved
to tears.
The increasing acts of violence by the terrorist PKK was also on
Erdogan’s agenda.
“We have been alone in our fight against terrorism, in our process of
democratization,” the prime minister said, inviting the main opposition
parties — the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Nationalist Movement
Party (MHP) — to solve the long-standing Kurdish question together
with the AK Party.
“We are determined to solve the [Kurdish] issue despite provocations
and attrition campaigns against the government,” the prime minister
further stated, adding that terrorism in Turkey is supported by
both internal and external forces. Erdogan also criticized those who
capitalize on terrorism.
“The Kurdish question can be solved not by those who hug terrorists,
but those who hug the nation,” he said, referring to a video showing
deputies from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and a
group of terrorists from the PKK chatting and hugging one another in
the Å~^emdinli district of the southeastern province of Hakkari.
Recent attacks on Islam’s sacred values and the Prophet Muhammad were
also on the receiving end of criticism in Erdogan’s speech.
Erdogan spoke in reference to the California-made anti-Islam film
that denigrates the Prophet Muhammad and has recently sparked a
series of violent protests in Arab countries, resulting in numerous
deaths including those of the US ambassador to Libya and three other
Americans.
“Insulting the sacred values of a religion cannot be considered
protected within the scope of freedom of expression and thought,”
Erdogan said, adding that Islamophobia is a crime against humanity.
On the subject of the nation’s finances, Erdogan said Turkey will clear
its remaining $1.3 billion of debt to the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) by next April.
In the past the Turkish government relied on IMF loans to meet
financial shortfalls, but it has managed to do without the aid since
2008. It has been gradually reducing its debts to the fund, which
stood at $1.9 billion in late May.
“We took over $23.5 billion of debt. As of now we have $1.3 billion of
debt and we will cut this to zero in April. We are holding technical
discussions now,” Erdogan told party members and supporters.
Turkey’s last standby agreement with the fund was in 2005 and expired
in May 2008.
The party leader also touched upon Turkey’s policies towards Israel
and Armenia in his historic speech.
Turkey will not restore relations with Israel unless the country
apologizes for the Mavi Marmara deaths, Erdogan said.
The alliance between the Jewish state and Turkey fell apart after
the Israeli military raid in May 2010 of the Mavi Marmara ship headed
for the blockaded Gaza Strip carrying humanitarian aid, which killed
eight Turkish citizens and one Turkish American.
Israel denied wrongdoing after the flotilla attack and offered
statements of regret, rather than contrition.
Concerning relations with Armenia, Erdogan said, “Armenians, Armenia
and those who stand by them both inside and outside Turkey must know
that until the rights of Azerbaijanis are fulfilled, Turkey’s position
on Armenia won’t change.”
Erdogan is running for the party leadership for the last time
as party guidelines bar members from holding posts for more than
three consecutive terms. But Erdogan is widely expected to run for
presidential elections in 2014 when, observers say, he could hand over
the party’s reins to a trusted confidant and retain some control over
both the running of the party and government.
The prime minister has said he favors changing Turkey’s political
system to a strong presidential one similar to that of the United
States, although opposition leaders have balked at the idea of an
all-powerful presidency.
The AK Party swept to power in 2002 on the heels of an economic crisis
and went on to win elections by commanding margins in 2007 and 2011.
It has maintained the country’s system of secular politics, but
undercut the political power of the military, which has staged three
coups since the 1960s and forced an Islamist government out of office
in 1997.