Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
Jan 27 2008

Turkey hopes to become top 10 economies by 2013 – foreign minister

Davos, 27 January: Turkish FM Ali Babacan said thanks to the reforms
implemented in the last five years Turkey underwent major changes in
areas of economy and politics. He said this has resulted in Turkey
becoming a dynamic, transformed and stable state.

Babacan delivered a speech at a panel discussion titled "Turkey’s
Challenges," on Saturday [26 January].

"Turkey’s goal now is to be one of the top 10 economies by 2023, the
100th anniversary of the Turkish Republic’s founding," said Babacan.

FM Babacan said Turkey wanted to completely normalise relations with
Greece. He recalled that Greek PM Karamanlis visited Turkey – as the
first Greek PM to visit Turkey in 49 years – and said this was the
beginning of a new era in relations between the two countries.

Babacan said they would pursue an active foreign policy in 2008 and
noted that they wanted to open 10 embassies in Africa.

Babacan said Turkish community did not have a prejudice against
Armenian people and recalled that other than the Armenians people
that lived in Turkey, 70 thousand Armenians visited Turkey every
year.

Also Suzan Sabanci Dincer, Board Member and Managing Director of
Akbank TAS, Hanzade Dogan Boyner, Chief Executive Officer of Dogan
Newspaper Publishing delivered speech at the discussion panel.

On the other hand, after the panel discussion, Babacan held an
exclusive meeting with the foreign press.

Answering questions on Turkey’s combat with terrorist organization
PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] and the cross-border operations in to
PKK camps in the north of Iraq, Babacan said a military operation
targeting civilians was out of the question.