TURKISH PM: DO NOT BE AFRAID OF FREEDOMS
By Cihan News Agency

Journal of Turkish Weekly
Sept 26 2005

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with a female protester
over the Armenian Conference during the opening ceremony at Bahcesehir
University. Erdogan, determining that they want everyone to live free,
called everyone not to be afraid of freedoms.

A forty-year-old woman, who stood up during Erdogan’s speech,
struggled to make her voice heard. The protester also showed her
poster that wrote “Whose prime minister are you that you want the
Armenian Conference to be held so much?”

While security guards took the female protester away from the incident
area, the Turkish Prime Minister changed the topic of his speech and
said protests aimed to prevent Turkey’s European Union (EU)membership:
“Freedoms turn green in places where there are people who do not
respect opposition views against those who could not digest opposition
views. Whether you accept it or not, freedoms develop through
respecting opposition views and providing opportunity for those views.”

Erdogan pointing that people should not be scared of freedoms added:
“If we trust our views and beliefs, we should not be afraid of those
kinds of freedoms. As I explained before, I do not approve the court’s
decision on the Armenian Conference. I want to live in a Turkey where
freedoms are widely extended. This is my dream for Turkey.”

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan expressed that he found the discussion
to be held just before the start of EU negotiation’s meaningful.

“Precipitation of the discussions on the eve of EU negotiations
is intentional, according to me. I perceive them as provocative
movements,” Erdogan concluded.