ANKARA
Turkey cannot accept Western hegemony in the writing of the history of arts and sciences, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday in a speech at the Turkish presidential awards ceremony.
"The fact that our scientific and arts achievements do not get enough appreciation in the West does not mean they are unworthy," said Erdogan. "Turkey has made very important arts contributions, such as music, calligraphy, marbling arts and others."
"Our soil brought up many valuable intellectuals for centuries," Erdogan said. "Opinion can come into existence only if there is language. They tried to blunt our language, our national and civilizational spirit in the past, but despite that, they could not exhaust the seeds of our intellectual capacity."
Erdogan also criticized the Nobel Prize and the UN Security Council's decisions.
"Do not hope for objective points of view in a world where international institutions decide according to their own ideologies, politics and beliefs. Is the Nobel awarded objectively? No. Does the UN Security Council make objective decisions? No, never," Erdogan said. "The UN, which was established on the post-World War I international system, is short of representing the whole world. The entire world's destiny cannot be in the hands of five countries only."
Erdogan praised Turkey's presidency of the G-20, which began Monday.
"We are among the top 20 economies of the world," he said. "We took historical steps for democratization and development despite all the crises in our region."
The G-20 is a grouping of the world’s largest economies, accounting for about 90 percent of global gross domestic product, two-thirds of the world's population and 80 percent of international trade.
"We are a strong state with our historical heritage, civilization, intellectuals and scholars," Erdogan said. "Those who do not believe in that can have no claim or imagination for the future whatsoever."
Erdogan also responded to criticism related to the new presidential palace, on which the opposition says the government spent too much money.
"The White Palace is not Erdogan's palace, but rather, it belongs to the whole Turkish nation," Erdogan said. "This is an artifact that Turkey will hand down to future generations."
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