Don’t have credit cards: Turkish PM Erdoğan

ANKARA

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan speaks during a fast-breaking dinner with the families of martyrs and veteran soldiers in Ankara on July 16. AA photo

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has suggested not owing the credit cards, saying that banks were forcing the poor to spend more than they had the means to pay back and collecting a lot of money thanks to interest rates.

"Those credit cards, don't have them. If everybody spends as much as they [banks] want, they would not even be able to earn that income. They could never be satiated," Erdoğan said during a fast-breaking dinner in Ankara July 16.
 
The prime minister repeated his claims that ongoing "plots" in the region aimed to weaken Turkey, once again accusing an "interest rate lobby" of supporting these plots.
 
Erdoğan has blamed “outside forces” for the latest countrywide protests, saying an “interest rate lobby” of speculators in financial markets had benefited from the unrest.

“Who gained from these three weeks of protests? The interest rate lobby, Turkey’s enemies,” he said earlier.

“Who lost from these protests? Turkey’s economy, and even if to a small extent, tourism lost. They overshadowed and stained Turkey’s image and international power,” he said.

'Resolution process will not hurt the memories of martyrs’
 
The ongoing Kurdish peace process will not hurt the memories of soldiers killed during the conflict against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) over the last three decades, prime minister also has assured the families of fallen soldiers.
 
"This is not a give-and-take, or a negotiation process. We will fight for the future of our country and the honor of our flag, until eternity if necessary. But we want a society where living and keeping people alive prevails, instead of dying and killing," Erdoğan said.
 
He said no soldier had died during an open confrontation since the start of the process seven months ago. "Isn't this what we want, what we are expecting? We will fight against terrorism but while we also continue this [peace process] fight, relieving the hearts of mothers and fathers is also our duty," he said.

The prime minister also slammed those who oppose the process, adding that the government was dealing with "provocations of all natures."

"We are not only fighting terrorism and terrorists, but also those who use them, those whose interests are served by the spilling of blood. We are currently witnessing that those circles have not remained idle, that vile traitors have made all kinds of provocations," Erdoğan said. "We will not allow the memories of our martyrs be hurt. Those who want to abort this process cannot render an account to history."
 
He also warned against "a fight between confessions," saying that there were provocations to instigate such a conflict in Turkey and giving as an example the deadly recent attack in Reyhanlı on the Syrian border that killed 53 people. "Reyhanlı was a rehearsal. All the perpetrators said that. But we won't fall into that trap either," Erdoğan said.

The ongoing peace process entered a critical phase on May with the start of the withdrawal off PKK militants from Turkish soil. The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which is continuing its mediation work between the PKK's jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan and the organization's headquarters in the Kandil Mountains, has recently increased its calls to the government to speed up the talks on reforms, which are seen as the next phase of the process.