PM Erdogan meets with leaders of major non-muslim minorities

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the weekend met with the leaders of the major non-Muslim minorities over a luncheon at the Anadolu Club on Buyukada, with Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arınc, State Minister and chief negotiator for the EU talks Egemen Bagış, Education Minister Nimet Cubukcu, State Minister Faruk Celik and Culture and Tourism Minister Ertugrul Gunay also in attendance. Speaking to reporters, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) parliamentary group deputy chairman Bekir Bozdag stressed that the package for which the government is preparing a roadmap is a democratization package. "Some may prefer to call it the ‘Kurdish package,' or the ‘Kurdish initiative,' but for us this is a democratization package," he added. Stating that this package will comprise the rights of all 72 million Turkish citizens, he said that everyone will benefit from this package in line with the constitutional principle of equality.