President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke with reporters covering his day trip to Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan, where he attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Iğdır-Nakhchivan Natural Gas Pipeline with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. His main remarks included the following:
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan, on Monday with an official delegation, which included me, to attend groundbreaking and opening ceremonies for a natural gas pipeline and a military complex. By the time of the delegation’s departure, the media reported that eight senior Armenian military officers had been arrested on the charge of plotting the assassination of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
I am in New York City, where the heart of diplomacy is beating, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. This year’s general debate theme, which takes place after the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) expansion and the G-20 summit in New Delhi, India, will be “rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived in New York on Sunday to participate in the 78th United Nations General Assembly. During the visit, he is also set to hold a series of meetings with world leaders and influential entrepreneurs. One of the meetings garnering significant attention was the one between President Erdoğan and Elon Musk, the renowned founder of Tesla and SpaceX.
In his addresses on the occasion of the Aug. 30 Victory Day, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan frequently underscored the imperative of bolstering Türkiye’s military prowess, emphasizing that this stance is not a mere option but a necessity. He avered: “Our bitter experiences have taught us that a robust Türkiye hinges on a strong military. Enhancing the deterrent capabilities of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) is not a choice; it’s a necessity for our nation.” While historically, the discourse “strong army, strong Türkiye” was largely employed within the context of Kemalist military narrative to establish the TSK’s supremacy over Turkish politics and reinforce its superior position over political matters, Erdoğan reinterprets it as a pivotal component of a more expansive political narrative.