ANKARA (Sputnik) – Turkey has no territorial claims to any country, but its influence goes beyond the geographical borders, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday at a meeting, devoted to the death anniversary of the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
"We are not locked in the confined space inside our borders. Geographical borders are one thing, but spiritual [borders] are another thing … We do not claim other countries’ territories, but the developments there directly affect Turkey," Erdogan said, adding that Ataturk repeatedly expressed the same idea in his speeches.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was the First President of Turkey, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, who adopted Turkey's first constitution in 1921. Ataturk abolished the Sultanate and adopted principles of secularization and modernization.
