Turkey’s premier urges world leaders to stop “globalization of terrorism”

TRT 1 television, Ankara
28 Jan 05

Announcer Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has held a news
conference at the World Economic Forum congress centre in
Davos. Within the framework of this year’s theme in the summit,
Erdogan said, the politicians should offer alternatives.

Erdogan In my opinion, the first of these is to be able to prevent the
globalization of terrorism. We should discuss what we can do to
globalize peace. We must take the step of the joint struggle platform
together, including the most developed countries, the developing
countries and even the underdeveloped countries. All terrorists are
bad. Turkey is one of the countries that was hurt most by
terrorism. From the onset we declared, and are still declaring, that
we are ready to engage in all types of solidarity in this regard.”

Announcer In reply to a question on the Armenian genocide allegations
raised in various countries, Erdogan said that his government
advocates a concept of politics that leaves historical events to
historians.

Erdogan We are a government that has started flights from Yerevan to
Istanbul by opening the air corridor. My government has very proper
relations with the Armenian citizens in my country. There are 30,000
Armenian citizens in my country, and they have no such problem. At
present, we are engaged in efforts to build the world of tomorrow.”

Announcer Answering a question on the Israeli-Palestinian question,
Erdogan said:

Erdogan According to our saying, friends tell the painful truth. We
are saying: Let these bombs stop spewing death. We want a
Palestine-Israel where there are two separate states. We are saying:
peace, peace, peace.