Why shouldn't Turkey be in the Shanghai Five?

Democracy is like a streetcar. When you come to your stop, you get off.

Islam is a religion. It is not an ideology. For a Muslim, there is no such thing as to be against modernity. Why should a Muslim not be a modern person? I, as a Muslim, fulfill all the requirements of my religion, and I live in a democratic, social state.

Every country needs a strong leader in order to progress.

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

If you're the leader, you have to communicate the message of immortality to your people. Because I believe if a leader hides behind a rock, then the people will hide behind a mountain.

We, as Turkey, call on Europe to respect human rights and democracy.

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

We have never done anything to stop freedom of expression or freedom of press.

There is no difference, where aims are concerned, between a terrorist with a gun and bomb in his hand and a terrorist who has dollars, euros, and interest rates.

Your targets can only be realized on the basis of dreams.

Turkey is a sovereign state, just like the U.S. We might go to different directions, in terms of our impressions and ideas, but we'll always remain friends.

The E.U. should want Turkey to be part of it.

I cannot deceive my people.

The foundations of democratic transition should be laid in accordance with a sincere and committed strategy that is supported by various policy tools, and implemented wisely.

Nazism is still widespread in the West.

I am aware of the thesis that the United States has long since invested exclusively in stability and this has obviated democratic transformation in the Middle East.

Turkey will be in Cyprus forever.

All terror groups are bad, and we shall fight them all.

Our country and our nation have again only one message to those who attack us - you will not succeed!

My legal bond with the A.K.P. may have ended the day I took the presidential oath of office, but my bonds of love have never ended and never will.

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.

Before anything else, I'm a Muslim. As a Muslim, I try to comply with the requirements of my religion. I have a responsibility to God, who created me, and I try to fulfill that responsibility. But I try now very much to keep this away from my political life, to keep it private.

A country without a strong leader will go down.

A woman who abstains from motherhood saying 'I am working' means she is in fact rejecting motherhood.

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.

Invariably, also a Palestinian state should live side by side with Israel within recognized and secure borders and the security and prosperity of the Palestinian people must be guaranteed.

It is impossible to preserve my friendship with people who are allegedly leaders when they are attacking their own people, shooting at them, using tanks and other forms of heavy weaponry.

My nation wants the death penalty. That is the decision of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

I take the debate on the method of promoting democracy seriously.

If the E.U. is going to make Turkey a full member, we are ready.

Therefore, the question is not whether such democratization is possible, but instead how to meet the yearning of the masses in the Middle East for democracy; in other words, how to achieve democratization in the Middle East.

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.

What should be targeted is a concept of organic, and not just mechanic, democracy that preserves the rule of law, separation of powers, and that is participatory and pluralistic.

Satire, whether it be satire or not, everything has to have boundaries.

Among leaders in Europe there are those who have prejudices against Turkey, like France and Germany.

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

In this country, there is a segregation of Black Turks and White Turks. Your brother Tayyip belongs to the Black Turks.

Turkey must feel at ease. It mustn't say, 'For me, it's the European Union at all costs.' That's my view.

Strong families lead to strong nations.

We have a very significant number of Jewish citizens, and they have always been safe and secure where they are in Turkey.

Family planning, birth control, no Muslim family can practice such an understanding.

During the Gezi protests and PKK terror campaigns, the unity and solidarity of the Turkish nation were attacked.

Everyone should unconditionally accept that Israel is an indispensable element of the Middle Eastern mosaic.

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.

Germany has become an important haven for terrorists.

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.

The fact that a woman is attached to her professional life should not prevent her from being a mother.

I have already said that I find the coalition air strikes to be insufficient. A ground intervention will be necessary to overcome Daesh.

You cannot defend a terrorist group just because they are fighting Daesh.