Erdoğan: "The AKP isn't just for religious people"

Turkey has succeeded in ensuring a balance between Islam, democracy, secularism and modernism, something previously seen as impossible, said ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader and Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the current issue of Newsweek international magazine. Speaking to Owen Matthews, he declined to comment on the closure case against his party, as the judicial process is ongoing. Saying that in the West the AKP is painted as a party rooted in Islam, Erdogan called this a misperception. "The AKP is not a party just for religiously observant people � we are the party of the average Turk," he said. The premier stated that even as attitudes towards religion have shifted, religious rules have not, adding that his government has also strengthened the rights and freedoms of non-Muslims.