Turkey Live Coverage (5 April): The "Proof" of Terrorism
Thursday, April 5, 2012 at 15:18
1645 GMT: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said during the joint press briefing with Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha that Syrian President Bashar Assad's continuing violence is nothing short of his "manouevres of deception" rather than "manouevres of retreat."
In response to Tehran's recent remarks on the venue of nuclear enrichment talks, Erdogan said:
Iran needs to be honest. It is losing credibility because they are not honest. This is not the language of diplomacy. It is the language of something else yet it does not suit to me.
1600 GMT: President Gul continues his speech at the War Academy. Gul says:
This environment of instability taking place in our nighbours is wanted to be turned into a new Cold War stage where regional and global power struggles will occur.
It is possible that the tension focused on Iran's nuclear programme will lead to a close combar environment. Under these conditions, Turkey has no luxury to watch these developments from a distance.
1510 GMT: Speaking at the War Academy, President Abdullah Gul welcomed Turkey's "virtuous power":
In the present day, one can neither speak about security without democracy, nor a real democracy without security. Hence, democracy is both the most effective way to fight terrorism and our most valuable merit that we should jealously preserve.
It is very important to separate our citizens who voice their demands within the democratic system without resorting to violence from those who are tied to terrorism.
I believe that Turkey should act as a ‘virtuous power.’ A ‘virtuous power’ cares not only about the military/political dimension of security, but also justice and human values side.