President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the dinner organized by AK Party Rize Provincial Organization at the Ricosta Hotel, the opening ceremony of which was held today.
Thanking his fellow countryman who contributed to the opening of the Hotel in Rize, Erdoğan said they expected such investments to continue.
Erdoğan indicated that the more Turkey advocated the rights of the oppressed, the more it paved the way in numerous fields from foreign policy to economy, health to production, and from tourism to trade, and continued:
"The prayers of all members of our 83 million population, as well as hundreds of thousands of brothers and sisters across the world from Asia to Africa, have rendered our country stronger. We challenged the harassments of tutelage forces and buried the separatist terrorist organization into the ditches they dug. We strangled FETO in its own treachery. We faced street terror during the Gezi incidents and a bloody coup attempt on July 15. We did not surrender our country to tutelage circles within the state, or coup plotters writing newspaper columns or the terrorists targeting our country. We have not made any concessions on justice and maintained our struggle within the boundaries of democracy and law, thus carrying our country to the current level with our head held high."
"We will never bow to banditry on our continental shelf, nor will we pull back in the face of sanctions and threats," President Erdoğan said.
Noting that compared to 18 years ago, Turkey looked to the future with greater hopes, Erdoğan said they took more resolute steps than 18 years ago.
Erdoğan stated that Turkey could now manufacture its own tank, artillery, vessels, armed-unarmed unmanned aerial vehicles and exported these to friendly and brotherly countries, and continued as follows: "We are conducting the most comprehensive and successful operations of our history against terrorist organizations. We are more bravely defending our rights and interests not just within our borders but also in all strategic fields from the Mediterranean to Iraq, Syria, and Libya. Turkey is closer than ever to its goal of exceeding the level of contemporary civilizations.”
Erdoğan said Turkey was a source of hope not only for its citizens living within and outside the country but also for all oppressed regions of the world.
Erdoğan underlined that Turkey was a source of hope for oppressed Palestine, whose lands had been usurped for the last 70 years, as well as the Yemeni children, Syrian and Rakhine orphans, who carried the brunt of a dirty war on their tiny bodies and the brave men of Libya who resisted heroically against coup plotters.
Erdoğan stressed that Turkey’s determined stance helped restore the confidence of populations whose resources had been exploited and who had been condemned to poverty and scarcity by imperialists, and said his call “the world is bigger than 5” had become one of the symbols of the demand for justice on a global scale.
"We have no problem with anyone over freedom of religion"
Erdoğan stated that Turkey’s steps in the Mediterranean were in line with international law and good neighbourly relations, and noted the following:
"We expect Greece to act sensibly, without being incited by others, and to immediately put an end to policies akin to state terrorism, especially against our brothers and sisters in Western Thrace. Our mosques and schools are being attacked in Western Thrace. We have, on the contrary, completed the renovation of the Sumela Monastery and mass services started there yesterday. We have no problems with anyone over freedom of religion. Everyone is practising and will continue to practise their faith safely in this country."