Türkiye’s recent intensified diplomatic engagement aims at promoting peace and stability in the region and beyond, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, vowing that the country’s efforts to this end will continue to grow in the coming period through international visits and meetings.
“We are picking up the pace every day. We are hosting Greek Prime Minister (Kyriakos) Mitsotakis today. Tomorrow, Serbian President Alexander Vucic will be in Ankara. Next Monday and Tuesday we will visit the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia,” Erdoğan said in his weekly address to his parliamentary group on Feb. 11.
“A Turkish wind, so to speak, is blowing in our region and the world. We want for our friends and brothers what we want for ourselves. The reason for our accelerated diplomatic efforts recently is to contribute to regional peace. We are meeting with all actors and sharing our proposals,” Erdoğan said.
Recalling that he paid visits to Saudi Arabia and Egypt in the past week, where the recent developments in Gaza and Syria dominated talks, Erdoğan said he also met with Jordan's King Abdullah II in Istanbul and hinted that he is planning to visit Jordan very soon.
On Syria, Erdoğan expressed his wishes that the ongoing normalization process will continue without problems, and the Syrian people will benefit from the stability, peace, and comfort they were seeking during the 14-year-old civil war.
“I was very pleased to see that Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan share our concerns regarding Syria. We will work together with all three countries for the peace of Syria,” Erdoğan stressed, recalling that Türkiye’s Syria policy has always been pro-peace, where all Syrians, regardless of their ethnic, religious, and sectarian differences, live in a prosperous and safe country.
YPG should continue to implement the Jan. 18 and Jan. 30 agreements with the Syrian government and integrate with the Syrian army under the motto of “one state, one army,” Erdoğan urged.
“It is time to use Syria’s resources for the welfare of all Syrians and not to dig tunnels under the cities,” Erdoğan said, referring to YPG’s tunnels under many Syrian cities in a bid to defend their lines against the Syrian army.
“We will continue to follow closely all the developments in Syria, with which we have the longest borders,” he stated.
“I once again want to make clear for those who want to understand the axis of the Turkish foreign policy: Türkiye is not seeking to expand its influence in its region. Nor is it seeking domination. It does not want to design our countries either,” Erdoğan said. “To the contrary, we sincerely want the prevail of brotherhood, peace. Let’s develop all together, and let’s build our mutual future together."
Erdoğan meets DEM Party leaders.
Following his address at the parliament, Erdoğan received the officials from the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) to discuss the ongoing "terror-free Türkiye" project.
During his address, Erdoğan underlined that the project will continue to proceed thanks to the contribution of a parliamentary panel tasked to tackle political and legal aspects of the process.
“Despite sabotages, we have been running the 'terror-free Türkiye' [initiative] for the past 16 months. This process will succeed. The panel is about to finalize its report. Following the release of this report, the politics will have even more duties and responsibilities,” he stated.
