Top 66 Recep Tayyip Erdogan Quotes

Germany has become an important haven for terrorists.

A country without a strong leader will go down.

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

Similarly, gender-equality, supremacy of law, political participation, civil society, and transparency are among the indispensable elements that are the imperatives of democratization.

Turkey will be in Cyprus forever.

If the European Union wants to be an address where civilizations meet, it must take Turkey in.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

Engaging in actions which are not allowed by law should have certain prices to pay.

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.

The Muslim world and its subset the countries of the Middle East have been left behind in the marathon of political, economic and human development. For that, there is a tendency to blame others as the primary cause.

Being in the European Union, we would be building bridges between the 1.5 bn people of Muslim world to the non-Muslim world. They have to see this. If they ignore it, it brings weakness to the E.U.

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.

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.

I am a person who is inclined to define relations between individuals based on principles.

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

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

We’re really willing to see more and more U.S. entrepreneurs conducting investments in Turkey. I’m optimistic for the future.

Time to time I get together with the rabbis, with religious leaders, leaders of congregations, and I talk to them, and wherever a need arises, we do everything we can to meet those needs.

In this context, social consensus, and institutions that embody this consensus, must be made effective in order for democratization not to be abused as a provisional instrument to establish an anti-democratic regime.

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

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

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.

I cannot deceive my people.

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

Paramount is the need to secure human rights. The form of rule should be such that the citizen does not have to fear the State, but gives it direction and confidently participates in its administration.

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.

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

A simple caricature, a simple sketch – that’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if you draw up a caricature… if you associate that subject with the things you’re not supposed to, then, of course, you can’t expect that to be acceptable.

I’m calling on the United States: what kind of strategic partners are we, that you can still host someone whose extradition I have asked for?

Attempts by one ethnic group to exercise sovereignty over another are not fair. It doesn’t matter if that ethnicity is Kurdish, Turkish, Arabic, Chaldean or whatever.

There exists an unmistakable demand in the Middle East and in the wider Muslim world for democratization.

Even as we ought to accept that each country would progress with a different method and speed toward that goal, the standard for the expected end-state should not be lowered.

We have to fight all terrorist groups, and not arm one to fight another.

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

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.

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

If you think you can finish ISIS off with the PYD and YPG, you cannot, because they are terrorist groups as well.

We have extradited terrorists to the United States in the past. And we expect the same thing to be done by the United States.

It is obvious that putting the Arab-Israeli dispute on a resolution track would be an important element of overcoming the confidence problem in the region.

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.

Russia and Iran back Assad, but are they fighting Daesh? The answer is ‘no.’

Even in the Western world, one cannot argue that the ideal has been achieved given the existence of issues like the integration, participation and representation of Muslim citizens, and occasional but lingering anti-Semitism.

A confidence problem exists on the part of the people of the region who desire democratic rule in principle, but remain suspicious of both the fashion with which democratization is presented and the purposes of the democratic world.

The Kurdish problem is not only the problem of one part of my nation: it is a problem of every one of us, including myself.

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.

In other words, the bar should be maintained at the level of a pluralistic and participatory democracy.

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.

Those who claim we buy oil from Daesh are obliged to prove it. If not, you are slanderer.

I am one of the first political leaders officially declaring that anti-Semitism is a crime. I expect an official declaration that Islamophobia is a crime against humanity as well.

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.

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

Strong families lead to strong nations.

A federated structure in Iraq based on ethnicity or religious sects will not be healthy.

We are concerned that Germany, which has protected the PKK and DHKP-C for years, has become the backyard of the Gulenist terror organisation.

There is no Kurdish problem.

My visit to the United States has also given me the opportunity to emphasize the objective of establishing close and intensive links between the Turkish and American peoples, scholars and businessmen.

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.

Whatever our Lord says, whatever our beloved Prophet says, we shall follow that path.

Jerusalem is holy to three religions. You have to respect that.

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