Turkey adopted vision for green development revolution: AK Party spokesman

ANKARA

Green development is strongly being embraced by Turkey’s Justice and Development (AK) Party as a vision, its spokesman said Tuesday.

In his speech at the UN and the opening of the Turkish parliament, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan "has clearly demonstrated that Turkey has acquired this process [of a green development revolution], a vision that is just at the level of discourse in many places in the world," Omer Celik told reporters during a meeting of the AK Party’s Central Executive Board headed by President Erdogan in the capital Ankara.

Turkey plans to ratify the Paris Climate Agreement and the Turkish parliament will discuss it on Wednesday.

In this context, Celik said the production of renewable energy sources and low-emission and clean production techniques will be encouraged.

He added that it is important to increase the share of railway and seaway transportation for freight and passengers and that increasing the rate of electric and hybrid vehicle use will also be on the agenda.

Noting that Turkey will also focus on issues such as generalizing zero-energy building standards, measures regarding the reduction of food waste in agriculture and the protection of forests and water resources, Celik said the use of recycled materials in all areas will be encouraged.

Syria, Idlib

Celik also touched on Syria and Idlib.

“Tensions that may arise in Idlib, where around 4 million people live in extremely difficult conditions, will produce new waves of migration and humanitarian tragedies.”

Idlib falls within a de-escalation zone forged under an agreement between Turkey and Russia. The area has been the subject of multiple cease-fire understandings, which have frequently been violated by the Syrian regime and its allies.

Noting that the meeting between Turkey’s president and his Russian counterpart in Sochi on Sept. 29 is important in this regard, Celik said: “From our point of view, it is essential to establish a political solution in order to achieve a lasting peace in Syria. In this respect, we closely follow and evaluate the progress of the work of the [Syrian] Constitutional Committee.”

-Macron’s remarks on Algeria

On the recent remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron regarding Algeria, Celik said Macron's statements should not be taken seriously.

"The Algerian people and state are an honorable people and state. Therefore, it is an extremely wrong approach to connect Algeria's statehood and nationalization process to French colonialism,” he said.

"To tell the truth, I would like to express that we cannot understand in any way this policy of targeting our president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the history of Turkey and the Ottoman Empire in order to avoid facing its [France’s] own colonial legacy.”

On Thursday, Macron met at the Elysee Palace with the descendants of Algerians who fought on France’s side during Algeria’s war of independence.

“The building of Algeria as a nation is a phenomenon worth watching. Was there an Algerian nation before French colonization? That is the question,” the Le Monde daily quoted him as saying.

Macron’s remarks, however, sparked a storm of condemnations in Algeria.

Blue Homeland red line for Turkey

Stating that Greece and the Greek Cypriots should abandon their maximalist behavior in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, Celik said: “A policy [whereby a country] thinks the Aegean is its own lake and ignores the existence of a state like the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has nowhere to go.”

“In the face of the latest violation by a Greek ship, our navy responded immediately and sent it back to its own region,” he said.

“The Blue Homeland is our red line. It is an inseparable part of the motherland,” he added.