ANKARA (AA) - September 11, 2012 - Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his country would not repatriate Iraq's fugitive vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, if Baghdad government would file such a request.
"Let me be very clear on this one. We will allow al-Hashemi to stay in Turkey as long as he wants to stay and we will not hand him over," Erdogan told reporters before his departure for Azerbaijan on Tuesday.
A Baghdad court has convicted al-Hashemi of masterminding murder of rivals, sentencing him to death by hanging.
"The verdict is unjust, politicized, illegitimate and I will not recognize it," al-Hashemi told reporters on Monday in a press meeting in the Turkish capital, Ankara.
Erdogan also rejected accusations directed against the Iraqi vice president. "We know very well al-Hashemi's position and stance in Iraqi politics and it is out of question that he might have done anything that would lead to such a sentence."
Turkish premier says no reshuffle in cabinet
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that there would be no reshuffle in the cabinet.
Premier Erdogan left for Azerbaijan and replied to questions of reporters before his departure.
When a reporter said that the Justice and Development (AK) Party's general convention would be held on September 30 and there were some expectations that there would be a cabinet reshuffle, Erdogan said that a cabinet reshuffle was not included in his party's current road map.
Erdogan said that they focused on the general convention set to be held on September 30.
Replying to a question on the blast in military arsenal in western province of Afyonkarahisar, Erdogan said that one colonel, one lieutenant colonel, one major and one noncommissioned officer were dismissed from their offices in Afyonkarahisar and assigned to different cities.
When he was reminded of claims of sabotage in the blast, Erdogan said that administrative and judicial inquiry was underway.
