Erdogan attends the B20 busines council

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended the B20 Business Council which was held on November 2-3 in Cannes, France. After delivering a speech at the business council, Erdogan answered reporters' questions about the crisis in Greece along with other questions. In reply to a question about German Chancellor Angela Merkel's ultimatum-like statements concerning the developments in Greece, Erdogan said, "We have not seen how the statements made by Merkel and [French President] Sarkozy were evaluated at B-20 platforms yet. It would be appropriate to make a comprehensive evaluation tomorrow, but it's obvious that Greece and Italy have serious problems." Erdogan defined Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou as a dear friend, adding that he hoped the Greek economy would be recovered soon. In reply to a question whether he considered the statement made by Sarkozy that France would not give a penny to those economies harsh or not, Erdogan said, "I don't know. These are all the EU-members which are covered by the Euro zone. Of course the countries which don't let us join the EU must worry about that." Stating that he has welcomed the decisions taken at the latest EU summit, Erdogan said that Turkey was aware of the importance of a sound banking sector. He added that the average capital ratio of Turkish banks was 17 percent, which clearly shows how assuring our financial institutions are.