Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has for the first time
confessed that he feels politically 'isolated' from the world and
suggested that other leaders “envy him “for “speaking his mind,” local
news reports said.
Speaking to a group of journalists after a
tour of Latin America, Erdogan said being “outspoken” when it comes to
discussing regional issues made him “a target for criticism,” the
Turkish Cihan News agency reported Monday 16/2/2015.
But that does not matter as far as Turkish people keep up their support, Erdogan implied.
“I
don't care about being alone in the eyes of the world. What matters is
how the people view me. We saw [how people see him] during the
presidential election that people sided with me. And there's no
isolation when you consider other countries' people as well.
“Maybe
there is an isolation on the level of leaders, but it's nothing other
than envy,” Erdogan said, in remarks published in several Turkish
dailies on Sunday.
The
Turkish president provided his relationship with U.S. President Barack
Obama as an example of political isolation. He recalled how his
relationship with Obama “was good in the beginning” but then things
changed.
“I had very good relations with Obama when he first
came to power. We were even hosted at the White House as a family. We
had one-on-one meetings. After all these talks, we see that things
started to develop in a different way, which I could not understand,”
said Erdogan.
Recently,
Erdogan openly criticized Obama for not speaking up in the wake of a
shooting that killed three Muslim students last week in North Carolina, U.S.A.
When
asked if his remarks were too critical of Obama, Erdogan replied: “I
don't know whether you find my statement harsh or soft. But this is
unacceptable. We wouldn't remain silent if such an incident happened in
our country. This is a requirement for a strategic partnership.”
In
the same vain, Erdogan also brought up the situation in Egypt,
wondering why the world “is not speaking out against” Egyptian President
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Erdogan
constantly blasts the West for supporting Sisi, who came to power after
leading the army to overthrow Islamist President Mohammad Mursi.
Turkey is known to be a supporter of the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group in Egypt, which Mursi hails from.
Erdogan has incessantly condemned the ouster of Mursi, saying it was a “coup” orchestrated by Sisi.
“When you speak out about these issues you are left alone, but not in the eyes of the people,” Erdogan said.
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