Speaking at the TRT World Forum, President Erdoğan underlined that Turkey doesn’t have designs on any country’s land or any community’s freedoms and interests, and said: “We regard any such accusation as the gravest insult to us. We are just defending our own rights and the rights and future of our brothers and sisters whom we view as an indivisible part of ours.”

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a speech at the TRT World Forum 2019 in Istanbul.

It has become evident that states whose borders were drawn at tables rather than being established through blood and sweat cannot be genuine states, pointed out President Erdoğan, and said: “The process we have been going through has shown once again that freedom is not a favor granted by others but a sacred value that is deserved, fought for, obtained through power and courage and protected with unwavering determination. Here lies Turkey’s difference from other states in its region. We are a nation that paid and continues to pay a very heavy price for everything we have.”

Underlining that Turkey doesn’t have designs on any country’s land or any community’s freedoms and interests, President Erdoğan noted: “We regard any such accusation as the gravest insult to us. We are just defending our own rights and the rights and future of our brothers and sisters whom we view as an indivisible part of ours.”

It is no longer possible for the mighty to continue to employ diplomacy as a means of oppression, stressed President Erdoğan, and continued as follows: “The crooked order, built upon an approach that considers every method to be legitimate, has now come to an end. It is especially tantamount to suicide to turn economic relations, which form the weakest link of the global system, into a weapon of political goals.” (ILKHA)