President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan answered the reporters’ questions on current issues in a joint interview with CNN TÜRK and Kanal D.
President Erdoğan stated that they were following with concern the immediate risks caused by the death of Qassem Soleimani, Commander of the Special Forces Quds Corps of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, in terms of peace and stability of the region and continued his remarks as follows:
“We have negotiated with Western countries on the issue. We have expressed our suggestions to act in a restrained and calm manner on every occasion and we are obliged to do so, because we are also on one side of the issue. We have dwelled on the necessity of acting in close coordination with the countries where we share similar concerns and we are continuing to do so.”
“Restraint is the only solution”
President Erdoğan stated that he has held talks with the leaders of some countries in this process and also met with Hassan Rouhani, saying, “Restraint is the only solution. Similarly, I talked to the President of Iraq as well as the leaders of Western countries such as President Macron. I talked to Emir Sheikh Tamim of Qatar. My colleagues had also talks with their counterparts. Our Foreign Minister talked to the Russian Foreign Minister. President Putin will come to Turkey on the 8th. We will discuss in detail all of these issues including the regional ones and those regarding the Turkish Stream.”
Agreement with Libya
Erdoğan noted that the agreement process with Libya actually dated back to his term as Prime Minister and said, “We took the steps concerning this agreement with a broader scope during the term of Gaddafi, but he did not live long enough to finalize it. We were not able to sign the deal. We need to solve it now. There is now the Libyan coast and our coast. If these coasts saw each other, you would make the continental shelf agreement here. It is an international right and it complies with the maritime law. There is not the slightest distress here.”
Turkish soldiers’ mission in Libya
President Erdoğan stated the following regarding the mission to be undertaken by Turkish soldiers in Libya:
“Our soldiers’ task there is the coordination with regard to organizing training and education programs among all of our security institutions, as well as the sharing of technical knowledge and experience. They are currently carrying out this coordination. There will be an operation base and there will be also our lieutenant general in that operation base. They will manage the process there. Now, they're already going there one after the other. We will have different teams there as the combatant force. They are not one of our soldiers. Those combat forces will work there along with these different teams, but the coordination will be carried out by our high-ranking senior soldiers... Our lieutenant general and also very well-trained teams holding the chain of command along with our lieutenant general will be there. We will be running this process with them.”
Stating that an area exceeding 8,200 square kilometres has been cleared from terrorism thanks to the operation carried out by Turkey, Erdoğan said that DAESH has been defeated and that the way for its removal from the ground has been opened, adding, “We have thus contributed to maintaining the territorial integrity and political unity of Syria by inflicting a blow to the separatist agenda of the PKK/YPG. Now, of course, they have not happened out of the blue. They have been the result of a labour. How? On the one hand, we activated diplomacy and on the other, we carried the work to this point with mutual efforts of our Defence Ministers.”
Quadrilateral Summit
President Erdoğan stated the following regarding the quadrilateral summit;
“Tomorrow I am most likely to talk to Merkel about Iraq, Iran, namely, this issue, but she will bring up the Berlin process as an important issue and we will discuss in detail the Libya issue as well as the Berlin process. I obviously told Merkel, 'I mean, if Mr. Putin is going to attend, I will also attend, but if Putin is not going to attend, then our own special representatives will attend just as they have done before.' We will talk tomorrow, and we will consider accordingly. Libya is on the table of course, but there was no Iraq, Iran issue before. Now, there is also that issue, and thus it will now come to the fore. In addition, you surely know, we held the Quadrilateral Summit. Putin also attended that summit then. I do not think that he will attend this time, but now there is a new actor, namely, Boris Johnson (British Prime Minister). Following our talks in London, such a consensus was reached. ‘Alright, let’s hold the Quadrilateral Summit in Istanbul,’ they said. We will hold the Quadrilateral Summit in Istanbul in February.”
In response to the question of what lay ahead for Turkey in 2020 and regarding the S400 issue, Erdoğan noted the following:
“S400 systems are a national requirement. We are a sovereign country, and as a sovereign country, how can you attack my sovereignty rights? How can this be possible? We have repeatedly explained this to Trump. He has agreed with me.”
President Erdoğan stated that if the attempts aimed at passing sanctions against Turkey by the US Congress persisted, Turkey would give the necessary response, adding that he expected the US to act in a manner worthy of its long-established alliance relationships and that he was hopeful.
Canal İstanbul
Erdoğan stressed that the issue involved two important factors and added the following:
“First of all, the work has been planned. The project designing work has been completed as well. This is the most important aspect: Plan and project. As for financing, we can do this through the build-operate-transfer (BOT) method. We can handle this with two national budgets. I sincerely hope to carry out this project through the BOT system. I heartfeltly wish this so that we will not need to fund it from our national budget. If we can, we will find funding. Otherwise, we will fund it from the national budget.
President Erdoğan continued his remarks as follows:
“We have known the problems faced in the Istanbul Strait for a long while. But we do not want to go through such problems again. Why would huge oil tankers with a capacity of 200,000 tons pass our Strait? Some say that this is related to the Montreux Convention and you cannot stop that. Dear friends, they barely dare to touch upon such issues, but I am saying this bravely. We will do what is necessary with regard to any issue that threatens our Asian and European sides, because we suffered a disaster involving the Romanian tanker, which stood there burning for 7,5 months. Unless we hinder them, who can guarantee us that we will not be suffering a bigger disaster in the future? Since all measures are taken here, there will not be such a problem in Canal Istanbul and we will rebuild Istanbul as a project of environmentalism and urbanism on the Asian and European sides.”
“National credit rating agency will play a more active role”
As it was reminded that leading organizations of the Turkish finance sector had purchased 85.05 per cent of the shares of a credit rating agency, Erdoğan made the following statement:
“These are the steps required by being domestic and national. The national credit rating agency will assume an important task in terms of risk management and the efficiency of debt markets, and thus play a more active role in credit ratings of domestic companies from now on."