President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan answered questions from journalists, including TVNET Economy Chief Semra Karabaş, following the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Heads of State Summit held in Kyrgyzstan. Regarding Türkiye’s potential membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Erdoğan said, “Everyone now sees that the vast geography stretching from China to Central Asia, and from Russia to South Asia, offers major commercial and economic opportunities for Türkiye. It is also possible, from our perspective, to take relations with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to higher levels in the period ahead.
I would especially like to underline one point. Türkiye’s perspective on membership in the organization in no way means breaking away from one bloc or turning its back on the West. Our goal is to increase our own weight with a 360-degree vision.” Asked about the “framework law” adopted as part of the “Terror-Free Türkiye” process and the disarmament of the organization, Erdoğan said: “In such cases, it is not possible to give a specific time frame, in other words, to establish a timetable or schedule the process.
We view the Terror-Free Türkiye process as a matter of achieving a goal rather than simply a matter of following a timetable. This is how we will approach it. Of course, as the state, we have a roadmap, a plan and a timetable.
Our relevant institutions are currently working in coordination on the process.” “At the point we have reached today, the strong consensus demonstrated by our Parliament is important and extremely valuable. The monitoring committee established under the chairmanship of our Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz has begun planning the steps to be taken within the framework of the duties defined by the law. For the law to begin being implemented, the organization must actually lay down its arms and be dismantled.
The procedures for determining and verifying this are also clear. The process is moving forward step by step.” “The process has not been confined to narrow parameters in all its aspects. There is also a degree of flexibility in this regard.
We are approaching the issue with the seriousness of the state and taking our steps accordingly. Our nation has also demonstrated its support for a Terror-Free Türkiye. Processes that are so open to provocation should not be allowed to drag on for too long.
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