Erdogan: "We cannot sleep on a full stomach when our neighbhour is starving"

After his “blunder” two days ago saying that “Greece is asking for alms”, the Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared visibly more cautious today, saying that “we have and will continue to have solidarity with Greece”.

Speaking at the congress of the ruling Justice and Development Party in Denizli, Turkey, Erdogan mentioned the occasion of the declaration he made two days ago.

“The leader of the Republic people’s Party Kemal Kilicdaroglu said that the economy of Greece is better than that of Turkey”, said Erdogan and underlined: “A year ago, during the election period in Turkey, Kilicdaroglu stated 'We will rescue the Greek economy too', resulting in a Greek newspaper writing 'hold on, Giorgos, Kilicdaroglu is coming' ”.

“It seems Kilicdaroglu saved Greece and we did not get wind of it”. The Turkish PM characterized the Kilicdaroglu statement as an “injustice” since as he said, “Economists from even the most remote countries believe in Turkey”.

Erdogan added that “the EU funded Greece with 100 billion euros to recover”, and continued: “But it cannot. Now it goes back to elections. We know the difficulties faced by neighbhorhing Greece and we are not indifferent to this difficult period it is going through. Our culture requires that we cannot sleep with our stomachs full when our neighbhour is starving”.

It should be noted that just the other day, the Turkish PM had reported on the same issue by stating “how can Greece be an example for Turkey when they seek alms worth 100 billion dollars?”, to note that “a country doesn’t healthily announce its full population and tries to show a high per capita income, indicating its reduced population. What is the purchasing power of these people? How can they be an example for Turkey, when they try to stand on their own two feet, asking for 100 billion worth of alms, selling their islands”?