Turkey thwarted attacks on its economy in 2018: Erdoğan

ANKARA

Attacks on the Turkish economy aiming to make it a “fragile economy” in August 2018 have been successfully eliminated, the Turkish president has said, citing the inauguration of the new Istanbul Airport as the greatest achievement of the past year.

“We have halted the attacks on our economy through the currency and interest rates and inflation, which started in August, with the strong structure of our economy and the precautions we took. We discouraged those who have tried to label Turkey as a ‘fragile economy,’” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in his New Year message on Dec. 31.

“We managed to increase our export figures and the number of tourists to record levels and narrowed our current account deficit to the lowest level of the last period. We are carrying on with our activities on research and development, design and production in critical industries, especially the defense industry,” he stressed.

Turkey is gathering the entire world’s attention with its huge investments, culture of democracy and rule of law, Erdoğan said, adding, “One of the most important of these investments is the Istanbul Airport, which we opened on Oct. 29, 2018. I wish that this airport, one of the greatest works of our republic’s history, will once again be beneficial to our country, our nation, our region and the world.”

Recalling that Turkey “successfully realized presidential and parliamentary elections” in June 2018, paving the way to launch the new presidential government system, the president stressed that Turkey has now left behind the period of coalitions, crises and military coups.

On regional policies, Erdoğan said Turkey was exposed to “terror threats” and therefore will continue its active military and diplomatic initiatives in its region.

“I am saying this once again: Turkey does not have its eye on any other state’s lands, sovereignty, rights or law. Our only objective is to provide a secure and peaceful future to our nation and our brothers living in the region,” he said, in reference to Turkey’s ongoing military presence in Syria.

“Our country is neither responsible for the regional events nor will be victimized by them. We take all our steps with this understanding. The developments in Syria are the results of these efforts. We continue to contribute to the stability of Iraq,” Erdoğan stated.

The Turkish president also reiterated Ankara’s commitment to protecting what he called were its rights in Cyprus, the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean, both in the political sphere and in the field.