Mayors

"If the EU really wants to contribute to a solution, it must fulfill the commitments it made back in 2004 and recognize the existence and will of the Turkish Cypriots, as well as making use of the solution proposal put forward in Geneva,"

"We have no grudge against the people of Armenia. The problem is with the Armenian administration. Over 100,000 Armenians live in my country,"

"We believe that we do not have any problem with any country or institution that cannot be solved through politics, diplomacy, and dialogue,"

"If Europe continues this way, no European in any part of the world can walk safely on the streets. We, as Turkey, call on Europe to respect human rights and democracy."

"I am calling on my citizens, my brothers and sisters in Europe. Don’t have just three children; have five. The place in which you are living and working is now your homeland and new motherland. Stake a claim in it. Open more businesses, enroll your children in better schools, have your families live in better neighborhoods, drive the best cars, live in the most beautiful houses. That's because you are the future of Europe. It will be the best answer to the vulgarism, antagonism and injustices made against you."

"You cried out when 50,000 refugees were at the Kapikule border... You started asking what you would do if Turkey would open the gates. Look at me — if you go further, those border gates will be open. You should know that."

"It is still not completely clear how ramified this organisation is [ Fethullah Gülen ] which resembles your P2 lodge, a criminal organisation that calls itself religious."

"Europe, you don't want us because the majority of our population are Muslim ... We knew it but we tried to show our sincerity."

"A woman who rejects motherhood, who refrains from being around the house, however successful her working life is, is deficient, is incomplete."

"A woman who says 'because I am working I will not be a mother' is actually denying her feminity."

"As Muslims, we cannot overcome our difficulties without achieving unity in spite of our differences."

"What women need is to be able to be equivalent, rather than equal. Because equality turns the victim into an oppressor and vice versa."

"You cannot place a mother breastfeeding her baby on an equal footing with men. You cannot make women work in the same jobs as men do, as in communist regimes. You cannot give them a shovel and tell them to do their work. This is against their delicate nature."

"Our religion [Islam] has defined a position for women: motherhood. Some people can understand this, while others can’t. You cannot explain this to feminists because they don’t accept the concept of motherhood."

"There is a trouble called Twitter, the finest lies are here. Nowadays, social media is actually the headache of societies."

"I consider abortion to be murder. No-one should have the right to allow this to happen."

"There is no difference between killing a baby in its mother's stomach and killing a baby after birth."

"In my country there are 170,000 Armenians. Seventy thousand of them are citizens. We tolerate 100,000 more. So, what am I going to do tomorrow? If necessary I will tell the 100,000: OK, time to go back to your country. Why? They are not my citizens. I am not obliged to keep them in my country."

"Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb were not and never will be Jewish sites."

"Those who do not want to take a side will be eliminated (read as: irrelevant for) from the process."

"...it's not possible for a Muslim to commit genocide"

"There is but one alternative for Turkey. Either African barbarism, under Arabian direction, will burst around its head like an avalanche, or else it must re-establish strong leadership, thus putting twenty million heroes between itself and Africa and gaining a breathing spell for the accomplishment of its social regeneration."

"Mr. Peres, you are older than I am. And your voice is genuinely loud. I know that it is because you are, in fact, in a psychology of feeling guilty, thus you better know that I will not sound that loud. And when killing is the case, you know how to kill very well. I know how you killed the children on the beaches, I know how you shot them. Two ex-PMs of your country once told me important things. You have had such prime ministers who said, "When I enter Palestine on a tank, I feel happy — in a different way." You have had PMs who said to me "I feel happy when I am on a tank while entering Palestine." And you give me those numbers. I would release their names, in case some of you might be curious of. I also condemn those who acclaim this cruelty, because I think it is a crime against humanity as well."

"We are all human beings. (original: Hepimiz insanız)"

"These descriptions are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that’s it."

"Every instigator or madman, who will dare to raise his hand against the government, let him be sure that the government will chop it off."

"There are people who say that "Gül can't be my president". These people don't have good manners for and they should renounce their Turkish citizenship foremost this man will be chosen democratically by the people."

"There exists an unmistakable demand in the Middle East and in the wider Muslim world for democratization."

"Everyone should unconditionally accept that Israel is an indispensable element of the Middle Eastern mosaic."

"But foremost, I do not subscribe to the view that Islamic culture and democracy cannot be reconciled."

"In other words, the bar should be maintained at the level of a pluralistic and participatory democracy."

"The day will come when the two-state solution collapses and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights. As soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished. The Jewish organizations, which were our power base in America, will be the first to come out against us, because they will say they cannot support a state that does not support democracy and equal voting rights for all its residents."

"For thousands of years, we Jews have been nourished and sustained by a yearning for our historic land. I, like many others, was raised with a deep conviction that the day would never come when we would have to relinquish parts of the land of our forefathers. I believed and to this day still believe in our people's eternal and historic right to this entire land."

"Had I believed that there is a real chance of reaching an agreement, I would have recommended making an effort. But that is not the case. The choice we will be facing will be between less than a Geneva Accord—which means a return to the 1967 border, the crushing of Jerusalem, and a struggle to our last breath to ward off the international pressure to absorb hundreds of thousands of refugees into the shrinking State of Israel—and a comprehensive unilateral move, and I stress the word comprehensive. Through such a move we will define our borders, which under no circumstances will be identical to the Green Line and will include Jerusalem as a united city under our sovereignty."

"We are approaching the point where more and more Palestinians will say: we have been won over. We agree with [National Union leader Avigdor] Liberman. There is no room for two states between the Jordan and the sea. All that we want is the right to vote. The day they do that, is the day we lose everything. Even when they carry out terror, it is very difficult for us to persuade the world of the justice of our cause. We see this on a daily basis. All the more so when there is only one demand: an equal right to vote. The thought that the struggle against us will be headed by liberal Jewish organizations who shouldered the burden of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa scares me."

"The formula for the parameters of a unilateral solution are: To maximize the number of Jews; to minimize the number of Palestinians; not to withdraw to the 1967 border and not to divide Jerusalem."

"What we are doing in Gaza now is a war of devastation: indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing of civilians. It’s the result of government policy – knowingly, evilly, maliciously, irresponsibly dictated."

"When we saw that the Secretary of State, for reasons we did not really understand, wanted to vote in favor of the U.N. resolution... I looked for President Bush and they told me he was in Philadelphia making a speech, I said, 'I don't care. I have to talk to him now'. They got him off the podium, brought him to another room and I spoke to him. I told him, 'You can't vote in favor of this resolution.' He said, 'Listen, I don't know about it, I didn't see it, I'm not familiar with the phrasing.' [I said to him] 'I'm familiar with it. You can't vote in favor.' He gave an order to the Secretary of State and she did not vote in favor of it -- a resolution she cooked up, phrased, organized and maneuvered for. She was left pretty shamed and abstained on a resolution she arranged."

"Security: Ok, ok..."

"Reporters: But, that is..."

"Jiang: You people! Naive!"

"Reporters: Well no, but..."

"Jiang: Do you understand? You people. Don't even think about trying to stir the pot by creating a big scandal, saying that I'd already made the imperial decree and criticising me."

"Reporters: But..."

"Jiang: Eh? To serve another term, you must follow the law of Hong Kong, correct? You should follow Hong Kong's... Of course, our power to make the decision is also very important. Hong Kong SAR, Special Administrative Region, belongs to the Central Government of the People's Republic of China. When the time comes, we will will tell you!"

"Jiang: ... Correct?"

"Reporters [interjecting]: But what about re-election..."

"Jiang: I was really thinking just now, that every time I meet you people and we talk — in China we have this saying "quietly make a fortune" — it would be better if I just didn't say anything! But I think that when I saw you people being so enthusiastic just now, it wouldn't have been right for me to not have said anything. As a result, you just had to insist... in the public arena, if your reporting ever contains inaccuracies, you will be held responsible. I never said I am appointing by decree, never said anything of the sort. But you asked... You just had to feel compelled to ask me whether I supported Mr. Tung. How can we not support him? He's the current Chief Executive. How can we not support the Chief Executive..."

"A review of our party's seventy-plus-year history elicits an important conclusion. Our party earned the people's support during the historical periods of revolution, construction and reform because it always represented the requirements for developing China's advanced productive forces, the orientation of China's advanced culture and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people. The party also earned popular support because it fought tirelessly to realize the fundamental interests of the country and the people by formulating a correct line, principles and policies. Today, humanity once again stands at the beginning of a new century and a new millennium. How our party can better effectuate the Three Represents under the new historical conditions is a major issue all Party comrades, especially high-ranking party cadres, must consider deeply."

"The elderly Deng was confident that no jeopardy existed for his strategy, and he stepped down from his burdensome offices in November 1989 while retaining the unofficial power of general political oversight. His protégé Jiang Zemin became leader. The process of economic reform slowed for a while. But Deng’s tour of southern provinces in 1992 revived it, and China’s transformation quickened again. Private companies sprang up in all cities and many villages. The most dynamic zones lay along the Pacific coast. Investment poured in from abroad. Multinational companies long excluded from Chinese industry and commerce set up in Beijing, Shanghai and Guanzhou. Gross domestic product rose exponentially as private enterprise from home and abroad injected the most up-to-date technology into an industrial sector which offered a cheap, educated, co-operative and disciplined labour force. By 2003 China share of the world’s gross production had risen to 12 per cent."