Gul: "Let's promote all languages, but not for ideological reasons"

All social groups in Turkey should join forces to help develop the country, said President Abdullah Gul on Saturday. Addressing the Turkish Energy, Water and Gas Workers' Union (TES-IS), Gul said, "All of us need to promote our citizens, and stick together in order to make this country and its people more powerful." Touching on recent debates on bilingualism, Gul said that everyone should watch what they say and do so as to protect the public peace. "The official language of Turkey is, of course, Turkish, and so it will continue to be in the future," he added. "But there are various languages being spoken in various parts of Turkey. All of them are our languages. We will promote all of them. But if we attempt to do this out of ideological motives, then we will disrupt peace and order and start to harm our own people."