Turkey seeking to draw more foreign students: Erdogan

By Sibel Kurtoglu

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s president on Saturday said the nation aims to attract around 350,000 foreign students, up from the current 115,000, making it one of the world’s top five destinations for study abroad.

"We not only open up our schools to visiting students, but our hearts as well," Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the 11th International Students Gathering at Istanbul's Halic Congress Center, organized by the Federation of International Students Associations.

"No matter where they are coming from, we would like to continue our relations with them in the future."

Erdogan also said that Turkey is "working on every platform" to make the world a more just and better place, highlighting the inequality of representation on the UN Security Council.

"We are not living in conditions in the wake of World War II," said Erdogan. "Thus, we need to reform the United Nations."

Erdogan said that worldwide, people are living in an atmosphere of fear.

"Because they are scared of these five permanent members of the UN Security Council. But we say it as we believe it. The world is bigger than five," he added, reiterating his motto on the issue.

"No Muslim country sits on the UN Security Council. What kind of a structure is that? We want justice,” he explained.