Gul: "Turkey does not have religious parties"

In an interview with Tunisia's state broadcaster ahead of his visit last week to Tunisia, President Abdullah Gul warned Muslim countries against seeking religious-based politics. "If one comes forward, saying one is ‘religious' and then fails, what will be harmed? Thus, one has to be responsible. Furthermore, policy should not be conducted based on religion. If religion directly becomes a tool for politics, that would hurt religion a lot. Because of this, Turkey does not have religious parties," Gul said. Stating that the deployment of a radar system in Turkey as part of a NATO missile defense system was not against Iran, Gul dismissed claims that data to be collected through the system would be shared with Israel as "dirty propaganda" spread by Israel. When reminded of comments that the missile defense system was created to protect Israel, Gul said that this was by no means the case. "Israel is not a NATO country and cannot benefit from NATO facilities. This can never happen, especially as long as Turkey is involved," Gul said.