Erdogan criticizes hypocrisy of nuclear powers

By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday criticized the countries, which are defending the concept of prohibiting nuclear weapons despite themselves having thousands of nuclear warheads.

"When you look at the mindset defending banning of nuclear warheads or the nuclear weapons today, you could see that one of them has 15,000 and the other has 16,000 nuclear warheads. Another has 12,500, while one has 7,500 nuclear warheads," Erdogan said, without naming the countries.

"The numbers are outrageous. You will have the right to use it wherever you want. But on the other side you tell others, 'You cannot do it'," he said at the 4th International Congress of Technology Addiction in Istanbul.

The Turkish president also criticized the mindset, which “saw the use of atomic bombs on innocent people as legitimate”.

"What we really must be against is the mindset that revealed the atomic bomb and saw the use of it on innocent people as legitimate."

Erdogan also called on everyone, especially youth, to use the technology in a conscious manner, saying it must not “take over” lives.