KONYA
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has arrived in Konya with Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on the occasion of the 740th anniversary of death of the great thirteenth century poet and mystic Jalal al-Din Rumi.
Ahead of a busy local election schedule due to start in March next year, Erdogan reassured his supporters in Konya of his commitment to policies of good governance.
"The 21st century will belong to Turkey," Erdogan said in a jam-packed 10,000 capacity stadium, part of over half a billion dollars’ worth of investment his government boasts of recently making in the conservative central Anatolian city, the sixth largest in Turkey.
"Rumi's city is praying for us," he said.
Erdogan promised modernization in a traditional city with traces of thirteenth-century Seljuk architecture and sound city planning.
The Prime Minister also paid his condolences to the families of four soldiers who died in a military helicopter crash earlier on Tuesday.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
