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Here is the translation of the statement by Recep Tayyip Erdogan:
 "We (read AKP) do not make any difference, nor do we separate our brothers in Thrace, whom we perceive as part of us. Therefore, the urban development of this area is very important for us. Strong Thrace means Turkey getting closer to the European Union standards and development of fraternal relations in the Balkans. We are making every effort to develop all regions of Thrace. The Thracian region has a separate and different meaning for us. After the three-day marathon that began in Edirne and continued in Uzunköprü, today we are in Keshan. The Thracians welcomed us very warmly, we were moved together with them. Thrace for us also means Thessaloniki, Komotini, Xanthi. Thrace also means Deliorman, Kardzhali, Vardar. If we go back further, it means Skopje, Pristina, Prizren, Sarajevo... Thrace for us is the living witness of our common European history and a representative of our entire past in this geography. And today our Thrace, with its Edirne, Tekirda, Kurklareli, and of course Istanbul, lies at the heart of all our relationships with these cities of the Balkan geography."
- Is there any information on the opening of the Halki Seminary? This is one of the conditions for Turkey’s accession to the European Union. U.S. President Barack Obama spoke in its favour as well.
- The Greek religious school on one of the Princes' Islands, namely Heybeliada (Halki) was to be open by the 4^th democratization package announced in early October 2013 but that did not happen. The seminary has been closed since 1971 because of the strong disagreement of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with the educational reform introduced in the same year, under which all private schools, including the religious ones, had to be inspected as secondary schools, under the bosom of the Turkish Ministry of Education and the Higher Academic Council in Ankara. The question of the opening of the seminary was first raised by U.S. President Bill Clinton before the 9^th Turkish President, Suleyman Demirel, during the last meeting of the OSCE at the end of the twentieth century in Istanbul. The opening of the seminary could not be a purely formal condition for Turkey’ membership after the pre-accession negotiations with the European Union started in 2005. This is seen as part of the Copenhagen political criteria concerning the rights of non-Muslim communities in the country, including the expansion of cultural and religious rights and freedoms of minorities, which also involve Christians, Orthodox and Catholics. Conceptually, Turkey recognizes only three minority communities. Since the Lausanne Agreement (1923), just the Greek, Armenian and Jewish communities have had official status. During his first foreign visit after assuming office, President Barack Obama, like Bill Clinton, delivered a historic speech at the Turkish Parliament on 6 April 2009. "Democracies are not static, they need to move towards progress. Religious freedom and freedom of speech are guarantees for a dynamic and vibrant civil society. The opening of the Heybeliada Seminary will be a strong message to the world that Turkey is making progress in this direction," said Obama from the rostrum of the Majlis. Despite the repeated explicit promises made by Prime Minister Erdogan at various international forums, this has not been done... I personally do not expect that this will happen before the parliamentary elections next year in order to prevent an outflow of AKP votes in favour of the opposition Nationalist Action Party of Devlet Bahceli. This can only happen if the government again wins the elections alone and uses it as a tool to improve the relations with Brussels and Washington, but this is not certain either.
- Greece sees Turkey as a major threat to national security. How do the Turks see Greece?