I salute you all with love and regards. I wish from Allah that our Group Meeting would be good for our country, nation, and democracy. I also welcome all our guests today at our meeting. My distinguished friends, Turkish Statistical Institute announced the growth rate figures for the 4th quarter of 2012 and for the year 2012. Our economy has grown 1.4% in the 4th quarter and 2.2% for the year. Our GDP was 1.298 trillion TL ($774 billion) in 2011 and it grew to 1.471 trillion TL ($786 billion) in 2012. So within 10 years we have tripled our GDP. GDP per capita was $3,500 in 2002 and this figure has grown to $10,504 as of 2012. I hope that these numbers would be good for our country, people, and economy. I also want to underline the fact that 2.2% growth puts us in a really good spot compared to the developed countries. Many EU-member countries have experienced negative growth in 2012 and the Eurozone average came at -0.6%. Germany grew 0.7%...

Ladies and Gentlemen: I salute you with love and regards and I wish from Allah that our Group Meeting would be good for our country and nation. I express my heartfelt gratitude to all our guests today for their enthusiastic participation. At the beginning of our meeting I want to remember the loving memory of Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu, whom we lost in a helicopter accident on March 25, 2009. He was one of the exemplary figures in Turkish political history with his principles and stance. His loss is truly heartfelt. I extend my condolences to his family, friends, and our nation. May Allah rest his soul in peace. My distinguished deputy friends, Last week right after our Group Meeting I travelled to Denmark with a coterie of ministers, deputies, businessmen, and journalists accompanying me. In Copenhagen I met with the Danish Queen Margrethe II and Prime Minister Schmidt. The same day my Danish counterpart and I attended the Turkish-Danish...

My very distinguished deputy friends, Very distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen: At the beginning of our Group Meeting I am welcoming our brother Salih Fırat, who is joining our Party from the Main Opposition Party, to our family. Our Party embraces our entire 76 million people and it is the place to practice politics for everyone. We will also have some mayors joining our Party right after our meeting and we are going to have a welcome ceremony for them. I wish from Allah that our Group Meeting would be good for our people and country. Last week we did not have a Group Meeting because I had a cold, which also forced me to cancel some other meetings and visits. I want to thank everyone who wished me a speedy recovery. Today marks a very significant and meaningful record for AK Party. In the multi-party era of our democracy the longest uninterrupted rule of any political party was the Democrat Party’s tenure from May 22,...

My very distinguished deputy friends, Very distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen: At the beginning of our weekly Group Meeting I salute you all with my dearest feelings. I wish from Allah that our Group Meeting would be good for our country, nation, and democracy. I extend my gratitude to every one of our guests for their enthusiastic and passionate participation. My distinguished friends, Next Friday we will celebrate the International Women’s Day and tomorrow I will be attending to the Women Workers Grand Convention, which is organized by the Turkish Metal Workers Union. On March 7, I will be attending the Global Women’s Labor Meeting, which is organized by HAK-İŞ. I will be in Siirt on March 8th to attend a grand opening ceremony and also to meet with our women there. We will be discussing the issue of International Women’s Day later so I am not going into details now. However, I want to stress that we...

My distinguished brothers and sisters, Ladies and Gentlemen: I salute you all with my dearest feelings and I wish from Allah that our Group Meeting would be good for our country, nation and democracy. At the beginning of my speech I am remembering the loving memories of our Azeri brothers and sisters, who were martyred in the massacre that took place in Hocalı town of Karabakh 21 years ago. 21 years ago today, Armenian Forces committed a massacre in Hocalı and the tragedy caused the lives of 613 civilians. Out of those 613 civilians, 106 were women and 83 were children. Unfortunately Karabakh remained invaded by the Armenian forces since and those who are responsible for the massacre have not been prosecuted. Once again we are feeling and sharing the pain of our Azeri brothers and sisters. Just like our Azeri brothers and sisters, we will never forget this massacre and inhumane tragedy. I extend my most sincere feelings of...

My very distinguished deputy friends, Very distinguished guest, Ladies and Gentlemen: I salute you all with love and regards, and I wish from Allah that our Group Meeting would be good for our country and nation. I welcome all our guests and I extend my dearest feelings to our dear nation watching us on TV. I want to open my speech with a very promising development regarding our economy. My distinguished friends, As with every field, Turkey has been recording numerous significant successes in the field of economy. While the developed economies of the world are struggling, Turkey is determinately achieving its goals one by one. Turkey is using its resources very carefully by preventing corruption and waste, and remaining committed to the fiscal discipline. Since our intentions are pure and positive, we are working sincerely and honestly towards our goals and our economy improves day by day. It has not been easy to get to this point....

Very distinguished guests, My very distinguished deputy friends, Ladies and Gentlemen: At the beginning of our Group Meeting I salute you all with my dearest feelings and I wish from Allah that our meeting would be good for our country and nation. First of all I extend my sympathies and condolences to the friends and families of 3 Turkish and 14 Syrian citizens, who were killed due to the blast in Cilvegözü Border Gate. I also wish speedy recovery for those who were injured in the blast. My distinguished friends, This is a very sensitive issue that we are facing. These recent developments are very significant as they prove how right we are. This border gate was closed except for transfer of humanitarian aid. Since the Syrian side does not control the passage from their side to ours, the vehicle carrying the bomb made it all the way to our side. I especially want to stress that all the speculations following the bombing...

I welcome all the guests attending our Group Meeting and I also would like to thank them for their participation. I congratulate all our students, who just finished their semester. I hope those who already had a great report card would improve their grades even further while those who are failing in some classes would get a passing grade in the next semester. My distinguished brothers and sisters, Since I was in Qatar yesterday for a formal visit, we are having our Group Meeting on a Wednesday. Before sharing my thoughts on the most recent developments, I would like talk about what I have done since our last meeting. As I just mentioned I was in Doha with a coterie accompanying me. We had very fruitful meetings with Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani. We have discussed our bilateral relations and how we could expand our cooperation in energy policies....

My very distinguished deputy friends, Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen: I salute you all with love and I wish from Allah that our Group Meeting would be good for our country, nation, and democracy. Since our last Group Meeting we have had many important meetings and opening ceremonies. On Tuesday we had the 25th edition of Science and Technology Board Meeting and the next day we had our Expanded Municipal Chairmen Meeting at our Party headquarters. On Thursday we had two important opening ceremonies in Ankara. With the initiatives of our Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Livestock and Turkish Grain Board we have initiated a campaign to end the wasting of bread. According to a Turkish Grain Board study 2 billion breads go to waste per annum, which equates to 1.5 billion TL. What is even more alarming is that as Turkey becomes more prosperous, the waste of bread grows bigger. In 2011 5 million bread a day went to waste and...

I salute you all with my dearest feelings. I wish from Allah that our Group Meeting would be good for our country, nation, and democracy. Due to the annual budget sessions of parliament and our otherwise busy agenda we have not had the chance to have a Group Meeting for almost a month and a half. We have had too many activities to list during this period. We have had visits to many countries while hosting a lot of foreign statesmen in our country. We had grand opening ceremonies in Konya, Şanlıurfa, Ankara, and Istanbul. We attended many meetings and summits, where we had the opportunity to discuss regional and global issues. In the meantime Turkish Grand National Assembly has worked hard to pass the new budget and many important new laws and regulations. I wish that all this hard work would pay dividends to our country and dear nation. I want to thank all our distinguished deputies, all the members of our Party, our bureaucrats,...