Quotes from Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Paramount is the need to secure human rights. The form of rule should be such that the citizen does not have to fear the State, but gives it direction and confidently participates in its administration.

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.

So far, I have not come to any of the positions that I have filled through wanting to be there. I was sought - people wanted me to come to those posts. I am talking about all my positions: mayor of Istanbul, chairman of the party, prime minister.

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.

If we look at history, we will see that regimes which persecute [their people] do not remain standing.

I went back in British history. Some 204 people died there after a mine collapsed in 1838. In 1866, 361 miners died in Britain. In an explosion in 1894, 290 people died there.

If nuclear energy is used for the sake of humanity, then I say yes. But if it is used destructively, then no.

A confidence problem exists on the part of the people of the region who desire democratic rule in principle, but remain suspicious of both the fashion with which democratization is presented and the purposes of the democratic world.

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.

The members of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria are also part of the Syrian people, and they have the right to exercise their democratic rights.

If we believe in a democratic system, we have to accept the will of the people.

However, democracy cannot be defined as the existence of parliaments and elections alone.

I should like to repeat what I stated recently in the Jeddah Economic Forum in Saudi Arabia: It won't be the religion, but rather the world-view of some of its followers that shall be made current.

A lasting solution to this problem will have an exceptionally positive influence foremost on the peoples of Palestine and Israel, as well as on the region and the international community.

As a politician who cherishes religious conviction in his personal sphere, but regards politics as a domain belonging outside religion, I believe that this view is seriously flawed.

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.

I am one of the first political leaders officially declaring that anti-Semitism is a crime. I expect an official declaration that Islamophobia is a crime against humanity as well.

As a politician who cherishes religious conviction in his personal sphere, but regards politics as a domain belonging outside religion, I believe that this view is seriously flawed.

I should like to repeat what I stated recently in the Jeddah Economic Forum in Saudi Arabia: It won't be the religion, but rather the world-view of some of its followers that shall be made current.

Therefore, the observation must be explicitly made: In the Middle East and in the Muslim world, suspicions linger concerning the objectives of the West and notably the US.

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

According to this view, democracy is a product of western culture, and it cannot be applied to the Middle East which has a different cultural, religious, sociological and historical background.

I cannot deceive my people.