The call for dialogue with Greece within the framework of international law and justice was made by the director of public relations for the Turkish President, Fahrettin Altun, in an interview with K, a few days after the earthquakes that hit the Turkey and shook the world. Mr. Altun, who is one of his closest associates Recep Tayyip Erdogan, thanks Greece for supporting Turkey, along with other countries. He rules out the possibility of postponing the elections in Turkey and considers the construction of thousands of houses promised by the Turkish president as a realistic goal. He does not accept the accusations of the opposition and many citizens of the inadequacy of the state and responds to criticism by blocking Twitter in the first hours of the earthquake.

“First of all, we need to understand how serious the situation we are facing is. With an interval of nine hours, we have experienced two of the strongest earthquakes in Turkey since 1939. In other words, we were shaken by not one, but two very strong earthquakes. Both of these earthquakes were stronger than the one we experienced in the Marmara region in 1999. In addition, eleven provinces were separately affected by this situation. Our people called these earthquakes “the disaster of the century.”

On the other hand, unfortunately, there are those who from the very first moment want to ignore both the scale of the destruction and the efforts and sacrifices of those who save lives at the front. Over the past two weeks, everyone from search and rescue to security forces and paramedics has put in superhuman effort. Our state is doing its best to heal the wounds of the victims of the earthquake. Our citizens are not deprived of both financial and in-kind support from aid agencies, especially AFAD (Agency for Response to Natural Disasters). Indeed, we have clearly demonstrated the indivisible unity of Turkey as a state and nation in this difficult period.

“Right now, our government has no other priorities than meeting the needs of our citizens and rebuilding our earthquake-hit cities. We refuse to politicize this situation.

Our state is doing its best to heal the wounds of the victims of the earthquake.

– After the first strong earthquake, Turkey immediately asked for international assistance. In this regard, search and rescue teams from dozens of countries arrived in Turkey. Greece was among them. Of course, we would like to thank Greece and all the countries that supported us. Regarding our relations with Greece, I can say the following: we always want to have good relations with all our neighbors. Naturally, disputes will arise between states from time to time. We must resolve these disputes through constructive and honest dialogue and justice, in accordance with international law. The Turkish people have never refused the hand of friendship extended to them.

“There is no such problem for us. Our main task now is to heal our wounds as soon as possible. We have injured and wounded due to the earthquake. Our only concern is to compassionately extend the hand of the state to the victims, to those who have lost their loved ones, and to all our citizens affected by the earthquake. Of course, our pain is also great. But we will overcome these difficult days with the unity of the state and the nation.

– In recent years, the fight against disinformation has become a priority not only in Turkey, but throughout the world. In this context, it also discusses what the relationship of global companies like Twitter should be with states. After the earthquake, we found that there were a lot of false posts on social media. We have found that 90% of reports made from time to time are false. We are investigating whether this was intentional or whether it was done by internal and external actors who wanted to undermine search and rescue efforts. Therefore, an administrative decision was made. Twitter stated that it understands our concerns and has taken concrete steps to address them. A few hours later, the restrictions came.

“This is definitely a realistic goal. Because the Republic of Turkey is a strong state. He has serious momentum. In essence, we are talking about a country that builds safe buildings around the world and puts its signature on giant projects. And most importantly, Turkey has such a strong leader as our president. Unfortunately, there are those who believe that criticism of every move by the government is political or intellectual. We won’t waste time responding to every one of their reviews. Just as we have not abandoned our citizens in previous disasters, so today we will heal their wounds without delay. We will provide our citizens with safe and quality housing.