PRAGUE
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Europe, as a continent which exists for democracy, respect for human rights and security for freedoms, needs to distance itself from terror organizations which pose threat to democracy, human rights and freedoms.
Speaking at a Turkish-Czech Business Council meeting in Prague, Erdogan underlined that Turkish security and intelligence units very carefully investigated Friday's suicide bomb blast at the US Embassy in Ankara which left two people, including the suicide bomber, dead and a Turkish woman seriously wounded.
"Terrorists responsible for deadly and bloody incidents in Turkey can walk freely in European countries," Erdogan underlined.
"Although we inform European officials about such terrorists, those terrorists never get touched. We have found out that the terrorist responsible for Friday's attack on the US Embassy lived in Germany and illegally entered Turkey," Erdogan stressed.
"Likewise, the terrorist killed in an assassination in Paris was being searched with an arrest warrant by the Interpol," Erdogan said.
"We can no longer tolerate such neglect," Erdogan stated.
Touching on Turkish-Czech bilateral economic relations, Erdogan underlined that the economic relations were far from the actual potential that exists.
"We look at the future with hope. There are positive developments. Our current trade volume of 2.5 billion USD with the Czech Republic is not sufficient. We now have a target. We want to reach a trade volume of 5 billion USD by 2015," Erdogan stressed.
"We are ready to provide Turkish citizenship to those Czech businesspeople who would want to invest in Turkey," Erdogan also said.
Also speaking at the meeting, Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan indicated that they could work together with Czech businesspeople especially in the automotive and machinery sectors.
