President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with the youth during his visit to Van and noted the following during his conversation with them: "As opposed to other political parties, we do not simply focus on the youth during the election season. We have always regarded the youth as our companions, fellows and the assurances of our future.”
Recalling his recent participation in Efes-2022 exercise, President Erdoğan continued as follows:
"We have given out messages there, and are aware of their intended recipients. They must also be aware, given that they quickly convened a meeting. They announced a momentum, and with that, no further statements or remarks will be made against Türkiye. Colleagues from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs then asked me if I had anything to say in response. We have said everything that needs to be said, so we have nothing to add. We believe in the words of those who are trustworthy and not those who are unreliable. I hosted you at Vahdettin Mansion, dined with you, and we agreed to communicate directly rather than using third parties to mediate. Yet barely 15 days or three weeks later, you travelled to the United States and made statements against Türkiye and F16s before the Senate. We are not buying that Mitsotakis. This nation will not fall for it. It is what your ancestors know; do not attempt to repeat what happened in the past or there will be a heavy cost."
"No trust in Western politics"
Recalling the bases set up in Greece, President Erdoğan said:
"5 plus 4 bases were established. When we ask why those bases were established, they say it is against the Russians. You say the bases are against the Russians yet have you done anything for Ukraine against the Russians? Have you been able to stand by Ukraine or support it? All of these are lies. There is no trust in the West. You can draw inspiration from Western science and the arts, but not from Western politics; there is no trust in it. Even in the case of our European Union accession process, they have been delaying us since 1963. When did Türkiye’s accession process begin? It actually began in 1959 but they have been delaying us so far."
"We will also try to ship goods to third countries"
Upon the question, “There is currently a global economic crisis. You refer to it as a struggle for independence and stated that much better days were ahead for us. Could you specify a date for when things will get much better and this struggle will end? Is there anything you would like to tell us about economic boon?”, President Erdoğan said:
These economic statistical curves rise and fall, but we must recognize that, as you have just stated, the entire world, particularly the United States, is in economic distress, right? On the one hand, there is the Ukraine-Russia war, and there is a supply shortage of agricultural products such as wheat, barley, sunflower oil, and so on due to this war. We know that these countries produce the majority of these goods. However, we do not have a serious shortage of these products. We have 5 million tons of wheat, barley, sunflower oil in our stocks. We are fine with these. However, despite all that, we want them to be increased.”
Indicating that relevant Ministers hold meetings with their counterparts in Russia about that, President Erdoğan noted:
“We will take this a step further by not only exporting these products to our country, but also attempting to re-export and ship these goods to third countries. Negotiations are ongoing, and we also met with other officials last night, and we may meet with Putin and Zelensky next week to discuss what steps we can take.
