Politician

We're really willing to see more and more U.S. entrepreneurs conducting investments in Turkey. I'm optimistic for the future.

During the Gezi protests and PKK terror campaigns, the unity and solidarity of the Turkish nation were attacked.

Every country needs a strong leader in order to progress.

My visit to the United States has also given me the opportunity to emphasize the objective of establishing close and intensive links between the Turkish and American peoples, scholars and businessmen.

Satire, whether it be satire or not, everything has to have boundaries.

It is obvious that putting the Arab-Israeli dispute on a resolution track would be an important element of overcoming the confidence problem in the region.

A federated structure in Iraq based on ethnicity or religious sects will not be healthy.

The purpose cannot be creating self-styled democracies, but rather encouraging steps that are conducive to establishing democratic rule at universal standards. Obviously, this would be a formidable journey.

Nazism is still widespread in the West.

Being in the European Union, we would be building bridges between the 1.5 bn people of Muslim world to the non-Muslim world. They have to see this. If they ignore it, it brings weakness to the E.U.

But foremost, I do not subscribe to the view that Islamic culture and democracy cannot be reconciled.

I consider personally the election of Barack Hussein Obama to have very great symbolic meaning. A Muslim and a Christian name - so in his name there is a synthesis, although people from time to time want to overlook that, and they do it intentionally.

Why shouldn't Turkey be in the Shanghai Five?

Islamophobia emerged from the Western countries, and this is a challenge that we all together need to surmount.

Those who stand on our side in the fight against terrorism are our friend. Those on the opposite side are our enemy.

It is essential that policy instruments be developed that would firmly establish democratization on the basis of social consensus and enable transformation on stable grounds.

Germany has become an important haven for terrorists.

We are concerned that Germany, which has protected the PKK and DHKP-C for years, has become the backyard of the Gulenist terror organisation.

A political party cannot have a religion. Only individuals can. Otherwise, you'd be exploiting religion, and religion is so supreme that it cannot be exploited or taken advantage of.

I regard the endorsement of both the objective and a method - which can differ from one country to another- of democratization by the parties in the region as a basic requisite of democratization in the Middle East.