Recep Tayyip Erdogan Quotes

There is no Kurdish problem.

Turkey must find its place if, of course, it can heal its internal sores, and none is more malignant than the perennial Kurdish issue.

Despite the often illusory nature of essays on the psychology of a nation, it seems to me there is something revealing in the insistence with which a people will question itself during certain periods of its growth.

I've never had a teenage rebellion; I'm not that type of person. I always work out my problems in a conscientious way.

I really do believe when you're in a ton of pain, you tend to take it out on other people. If you deal with your stuff, you don't take it out on everybody else.

When my father was born, it was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. When I was born, it was Lithuania. When I left, it was Hungary. It is difficult to say where I come from.

So long as any large number of Kurds are included in Iraq the Turkish government would have perpetual trouble in their eastern provinces.

if you allow…for a civil war to happen between the Shiites and the Sunnis, Iraq is finished forever. It will be dismembered. It will not only be dismembered, it will cause so many conflicts in the region that it will bring the whole region into a turmoil that will be hard to resolve

The Balkans are different from all other parts of the world. There are no world precedents that apply to the Balkans. Our problems have been going on for hundreds of years.

You must not take out your sword because if you try to kill someone, you must die for it yourself. What you must do instead is kill yourself, kill your own mind.

The measure of arming the Kurds is regarded with great anxiety here. This feeling is much increased by the conduct of the Kurds themselves, many of whom openly state that they have been appointed to suppress the Armenians, and that they have recieved assurances that they will not be called to answer before the tribunals for any acts of oppression commited against Christians.

I never am sure what nationality I am as my village [in Alsace-Loraine] is part of different countries from day to day.

The two sides should … stop blaming the other side and instead step back and consider what in their own behavior has contributed the derailment..

When two nations have competing national identities, the solutions are either imposed though force by one side over the other or require a new conception of identity that allows for compromise.

The Turkish government will never tolerate the creation of a Kurdish state.

Unfortunately, the diplomatic destruction Netanyahu is causing will lead Israel to lose its Jewish majority and become a binational state. This unfortunate fact is something no law can hide.

I started moving towards Serbia when I felt my country, Yugoslavia, was being taken away from me. My feeling of nationality was not as strong as those around me who were attaching themselves to these absurd new entities.

The idea that all Israelis are villains is a childish idea. Israel is the most deeply divided, argumentative society. You'll never find two Israelis that agree with one another - it's hard to find even one who agrees with himself or herself.

You need to distinguish between getting something off your chest that won't help anyone else or saying something because you know you will be hell to live with if you don't. Quite often, this will be beyond your control.

You can blame the other guy for saying it, or you can look at yourself and say, 'I must have contributed to this.'

If we were all to chase every squirrel that comes running along in the form of a personal dispute or a mischaracterization of someone, or someone's integrity or intent, we'd be very busy doing that and not focusing on the government, on that which we need to reform internally.

Americans, perhaps more than most people, have pondered the question of who they are and what their country is.

My failings are the result of my own inter-personal abilities. I am not a good husband or boyfriend.

I am not really a problem personality.

If you can't put problems in your own backyard to rest, then how can you deal with larger issues?