Erdogan said Turkey was a country where Islam and democracy were able to co-exist in harmony.
“Turkey has achieved what people said could never be achieved, a balance between Islam, democracy, secularism and modernity,” he said. “Our government demonstrates that a religious person can protect the idea of secularism. In the West the AK Party is always portrayed as being “rooted in religion.” This is not true.
The AKP is not a party just for religiously observant people —we are the party of the average Turk. We are absolutely against ethnic nationalism, regional nationalism and religious chauvinism.”
With its tradition of democracy, Turkey was a source of inspiration to the rest of the Islamic world, Erdogan said.
The Prime Minister said that as a politician it was not his place to enter into debates about modernizing Islam.
“However, we can speak about the place of Muslims in modern society and their contribution to a modern way of life,” he said. “We can speak about the place of women. For example, in Turkey today the AK Party is the best way for women to take an active part in political life. We have the largest number of female members of parliament.”
Erdogan said that religious attitudes had changed in Turkey during his lifetime, though the rules of religion have stayed the same.
“The urbanization of the country has brought increased wealth and a different understanding of life,” he said. “In the past, people had no alternatives. Now we have given people freedom of choice. We have also enhanced the rights and freedoms of non-Muslims. For instance we have made changes to the building codes so that they do not refer to mosque but to place of religious worship.”
With regard to trying to ease tensions between Israel and Syria, Erdogan said his government’s policy was to win friends, and not to make enemies.
“Because of our good relations with both Syria and Israel we were asked by both of them to effect better communications,” he said. “We’ve been speaking to the leaders of both countries. It’s important for us to try to gain some ground, if we can help achieve peace in the Middle East, that will have a major positive impact on the region.”
