Turkish president urges Muslim countries for use of local currency in international trade

ISTANBUL

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urged Muslim countries to use their national currencies in order to liberate the countries from the burden of exchange rates.

“There is no way out of using our domestic and national currency. Otherwise we will be crushed under the exchange rate,” he said in a speech to Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC) 34th Ministerial Session.

Boosting trade among members of the COMCEC would make them stronger, Erdoğan said. He underlined that boosting international trade among Islamic countries is key and said: “I invite Islamic countries to complete procedures and update concessions lists to make a preferential trade system a reality.”

Elaborating on the anniversary of the end of World War I, he said that bloodshed and crises in the region from Syria to Iraq, Yemen and Palestine stems from lines drawn at the war’s conclusion.

“Muslims should no longer be fooled by those who try to incite their differences and turn them on each other,” Erdoğan said.

“In regions where borders are drawn in blood, we should not erect new borders, new walls in our hearts,” he added. If millions are poor and hungry in the war-torn nation of Yemen, Muslims are responsible for that, not others, he said.

Stressing that the United Nations Security Council’s permanent membership system is unfair, he again pushed for reforms to it. The president reiterated significance of reforming the Security Council, using the slogan: “The world is greater than five.”

“We should not fall into the trap of those who give more weight to a drop of oil than a drop of blood,” said Erdoğan.

Urging people to visit Jerusalem, Erdoğan said: “International organizations have disappointed Muslims over Palestine and civil wars, although Muslims pressed them for solutions.”