Babacan: Europe has a short-term political vision

Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan told reporters yesterday Europe was just trying to save the day amid the economic crisis that it has been suffering. Speaking at the government-sponsored Forum Istanbul 2013 conference, Babacan said that European countries had a short-term political vision. Pointing to the model of Turkey's hard response to its own 2001 banking crisis, Babacan suggested the following painful reforms as a model for Europe: "Turkey had the courage to make reforms that were widely unpopular at the time, because the government was able to take a long view," Babacan said. Touching on government's recent efforts to solve the Kurdish issue in Turkey, Babacan noted, "The process aimed at ending terrorism continues in harmony for the first time," adding, "When terrorism falls off the agenda, we'll see a very different Turkey. When the environment slowing down Turkey disappears, everybody will see the actual performance of Turkey. As part of our targets for the year 2013, this is very important."