Foreign trade volume of Turkey to reach $500 bln in 2013

Erdogan: Foreign trade volume to reach $500 bln in 2013

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Turkey targeted 500 bln USD foreign trade volume in 2013.

Speaking at Justice & Development (AK) Party Women Branch in Uskudar district, Erdogan said Turkey could achieve this goal if it does not waste its energy on other issues.

Erdogan said, "in this country there are people who are wandering around in my people's spaces of freedom, and see it as a place of invasion. It is not possible to endure this. Nobody has the right to invade the space of freedom of the other. My people don't have a problem between the women that wear a headscarf and the women that don't. Those elitists have a problem."

Erdogan said there was social consensus in the country on the matter, indicating that there was problem only in institutional consensus.

Erdogan said Turkey was a democratic, secular and social state of law, "there is discrimination in this country on secularism. They say only women who do not wear headscarf are secular. Such a discrimination is wrong. Not people but the state is secular. Nobody should try to overshadow us. This is a mistake."