CAMBRIDGE (AA): A Muslim can not be a terrorist and Islam does not produceterrorists, the Turkish President said Thursday, once again rejecting theterm “Islamic terrorism”.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said racism, discrimination and Islamophobia spreadlike a poison ivy in countries once seen as cradles of democracy.
Erdogan’s remarks came at the inauguration ceremony of Cambridge CentralMosque which he attended with first lady Emine Erdogan and a group ofhigh-level Turkish officials.
“Muslim women are abused only because they wear headscarves,” in Erdogansaid, referring to recent Islamophobic attacks.
He added that Christians and Jewish people were also targeted in suchattacks. Erdogan underlined that regardless of identity, all terroristswere “bloodthirsty vampires”.
Earlier, the Turkish president said Turkey took NATO allies’ securityconcerns seriously and expected a similar policy toward Turkey from itsalliance partners.
Speaking to reporters about his meetings during Wednesday’s NATO leaders’summit in London, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the main topics were therefugee crisis, fight against terrorism, burden sharing, cyber and hybridthreats, strengthening solidarity among allies, Russia and China.
Underlining that Turkey was the only NATO member fighting against terrorgroups such as YPG/PKK in northern Syria, Daesh/ISIS and the FetullahTerrorist Organization (FETO), he said: “We regret to see that some alliesare hand in hand with these terror groups while emphasizing the fightagainst terrorism.” “All allies must take our security concerns seriously,just as we take the alliance’s security concerns seriously.”
Erdogan added that NATO leaders only talked about the fight againstterrorism, without taking action on the matter.
Erdogan stressed that Turkey stood as one of the strongest members of NATOand has participated in the most critical missions of the alliance sincebecoming a member in 1952.
Noting that Turkey was currently present in various NATO’s missions varyingfrom Afghanistan to Iraq, Erdogan said Turkey’s military and financialshare in the pact was more than that of many other members.
Erdogan went on to say that the alliance’s power depended on the solidaritybetween members, adding the insecurity of one member would mean insecurityfor the others.
Referring to Wednesday’s four-way meeting during the NATO leaders’ meetingbetween Turkish, French, German and British leaders, Erdogan said Turkey’scounter-terrorism operation in northern Syria was discussed in detail.
He said he told his counterparts that Turkey had no intention of leavingthe region without first securing its peace.
“We entered [northern Syria] to establish peace, and we will establishpeace there,” Erdogan said, adding there was no change in Turkey’s plans toestablish a safe-zone in the area.
Erdogan said he criticized his counterparts who boasted about eradicatingthe threat from Daesh in alliance with the YPG/PKK terrorists, while Daeshwas still present in the area.
He went on to say that Turkey inflicted significant blows to Daesh, withover 3,000 of its members neutralized in Al-Bab, northern Syria, along withmany others in other parts of the country. He added that Turkey hasarrested over 7,000 Daesh terrorists.
Noting that though some NATO members praised Ankara for hosting up to fourmillion Syrians, the EU had not yet fulfilled its promise to provide atotal of €6 billion (over $6.6 billion) of financial support for Turkey.
When asked about French President Emmanuel Macron’s attitude during themeeting, Erdogan said he had no quarrel with his counterpart.
Macron had recently said the NATO Alliance had become “braindead” in aninterview with The Economist.
Stressing that agreements between Turkey and France have been stalling dueto differences of opinion, he said: “They [France] need us, and we needthem.”
When asked about how NATO would respond if Turkey called on the pact totake action against the YPG/PKK terror group, Erdogan said it would be“unfair” to make assumptions based on possibilities. He underlined thatboth the YPG/PKK and Syrian regime had carried out attacks in northernSyria on civilians.
“Of course, we warn about these [attacks]. As you know, both we and Russiahave reciprocal commissions. They are in constant contact,” Erdogan said,underscoring that Turkey immediately responds by cautioning the other sidewhen tensions rise in the opposition-held Idlib province in northwesternSyria, but that Russia did not tend to do so.
Noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin would visit Istanbul on Jan. 8for the opening ceremony of the TurkStream gas pipeline, Erdogan saidTurkey might not wait for this to act in northern Syria against terrorattacks.
Without identifying which, Erdogan said either the U.K., France or Germanyexpressed willingness to help rebuild Syria after the war — one of the coreobjectives of Turkey’s anti-terror operation in Syria.
Erdogan said he had “fruitful” talks with Spanish Prime Minister PedroSanchez as well as U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the NATOmeeting.
“We discussed some problematic issues, again[…]We are going to focus on[the goal of reaching] $100 billion bilateral trade volume. Also, wediscussed the NATO meeting and regional issues. Our friends assigned on theissues of the S-400 and F-35 will continue their efforts,” Erdogan said,referring to his meeting with Trump.
He went on to say that a recent summit between himself and the leaders ofFrance, the U.K. and Germany had decided to hold annual four-way meetingsstarting February 2020.