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ANKARA, TURKEY - MAY 24: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivers a speech during the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) 73rd General Assembly in Ankara, Turkey on May 24, 2017.

By Sinan Uslu, Ozcan Yildirim, Selma Kasap and Duygu Yener

ANKARA

Turkey's president on Wednesday branded high interest rates a tool of economic exploitation, not mere profit.

"There are complaints about high interest rates everywhere. As president I always kept it on my list, Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a meeting of the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) in the capital Ankara.

Because I see high interest as a tool of exploitation. Its not a mentality for profit but exploitation," he added.

Erdogan has been outspoken in advocating that lenders and Turkeys Central Bank bring down interest rates.

Erdogan said that they continue to stand by everyone whose only aim is to produce and develop the country.

"We provide all kinds of support to those who are keen to work, produce, and earn rather than standing in their way. We always consult with representatives of the Turkish business environment in all this work," he added.

In the year 2035

Separately Erdogan predicted that by the year 2035, Turkey's population will exceed 90 million, putting it into the upper echelons of countries by population, and that it will maintain its power.

"The most important thing is we will utilize this population in the most effective way by joining the world's top 10 economies," he said, adding that they are determined that Turkey's young, educated, and dynamic population will be the engine of the country's economic growth.

Erdogan said that by 2035 Turkey will take its place among the worlds most prosperous countries after per capita income rises above $25,000, and wealth will spread across Turkey, reducing income inequality.

He added that this will bring solidarity to the country.

Citing his call in early February for businesses to create jobs, he said Turkish business circles responded positively, adding 1.17 million people to the employment rolls.

In addition Erdogan stressed that they should make Turkey a global hub for information technology, energy, transportation, logistics, and trade by combining economic breakthroughs with new investment opportunities.

"Let's make a 100 percent Turkish-made car within the TOBB community," he said, adding that Turkey has the people and parts necessary to produce such a car.

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Erdogan: High interest rates are tool for exploitation - Anadolu Agency

New York Times

NBA Player Enes Kanter Blames Erdogan for Detention in Romania New York Times If they sent me back to Turkey, probably you guys wouldn't hear a word from me the second day, Kanter said on Monday, leaving no doubt that he believed the Erdogan government was the cause. The reason behind it was, whoever is going to try to go ... Turkish NBA player calls Tayyip Erdogan 'Hitler of our century'Globalnews.ca Turkish NBA star Kanter calls Erdogan 'Hitler of our century'Reuters Enes Kanter calls Turkey's Erdoan 'Hitler of our century' after airport detainmentThe Guardian SLAM Online -Fox Business -POLITICO.eu -ESPN all 115 news articles »

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NBA Player Enes Kanter Blames Erdogan for Detention in Romania - New York Times

Until the April vote, Turkish presidents were obliged to cut ties with their parties to show their neutrality.

But the constitutional changes scrapped that rule, and on Sunday, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) returned the reins to Erdogan in a extraordinary Congress in Ankara.

"I am grateful to you for considering me worthy of becoming the leader of the Justice and Development Party once again," he said.

Erdogan could potentially remain president until 2029 under the country's new political structure.

The President appeared to have come to the Congress with the country's next elections in mind, reminding his supporters that "2019 is upon us."

"We will have local elections in March 2019, and general elections and presidential elections in November 2019. We shall not stop. We shall work hard and maintain our humbleness," he said Sunday. Some 80,000 supporters showed up to the Congress, according to media reports.

Erodgan co-founded the AKP in 2001, and the political powerhouse has ruled the country since its 2002 election win. Resuming leadership of the party would put Erdogan in control of both the executive branch of government and the largest party in Parliament.

It will also mean he can appoint his loyalists to more key posts.

The referendum, brought forward by the AKP, was widely condemned by European leaders and rights groups, who saw it as a blatant power grab by a leader showing increasing dictatorial tendencies.

Following an attempted military coup last year, Erodgan has led an ongoing purge that has gutted public institutions and crushed his political opponents. More than 100,000 people have been either jailed, arrested or suspended from their jobs.

He has been able to use heavier-handed tactics under the country's state of emergency, which was declared following the coup attempt and extended several times. On Sunday, Erdogan said that he had no plans to end it.

"We will end it when peace and safety and security is restored. Why should we end it? Schools are open. Factories are running. Everything is going on as normal," he said.

The tentacles of Erdogan's crackdown have also reached the country's universities and media organizations, once bastions of free thought and expression in Turkey. Academics and journalists considered critics of the government have been imprisoned for months without trial.

Erdogan also appears to have taken this brutality to the United States, where men who appeared to be his bodyguards were captured on a video by Voice of America on Tuesday outside the Turkish ambassador's home pushing and repeatedly kicking anti-Erdogan protestors.

Two law enforcement officials confirmed to CNN that Turkish security officials were involved in the bloody brawl.

It is not the first time members of Erdogan's entourage have been filmed fighting in public.

A little more than a year ago in the same city, journalists accused members of Erdogan's security detail of manhandling them and cursing them at a speech the Turkish president gave at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

CNN's Joseph Netto, Elise Labott, Zachary Cohen, Paul P. Murphy and Peter Morris contributed to this report.

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Erdogan returns as chief of Turkey's ruling party - CNN.com

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday took back control of the ruling party he founded, a step that gives the nations most powerful man additional authority to appoint loyalists to parliament lists and party posts across the nation.

Just a month after a vote approved transferring Turkeys center of political power to the presidency from parliament, the AK Partys leadership and tens of thousands of party faithful convened to anoint Erdogan at an extraordinary congress in Ankara. The referendums result allowed the president, until then constitutionally an impartial head of state, to be a member or leader of a political party.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan on May 20.

Photographer: Metin Pala/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Erdogan, 63, who has already defanged Turkeys once-influential military, neutralized the opposition and subordinated the press, will now wipe out any vestiges of dissent within the ruling party. A new set of party regulations includes stiffer penalties for breaking discipline, and expulsion for anyone who acts in a way perceived as serving the purposes of another party, Hurriyet newspaper reported.

The congress took place under extraordinary security measures, amid a state of emergency thats been in place since the aftermath of a July 15 coup attempt. Some 60,000 people were brought into Ankara by bus from outside the city, Hurriyet reported. By 9:30 a.m., security forces could be seen using pepper spray against masses of supporters who had congregated outside the arena and were fighting to get closer.

Erdogan founded the AK Party in 2001 as a conservative, free market-oriented, Islam-inspired political movement that was an alternative to the long-time domination of rigid secularists -- the successors of modern Turkeys founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The AK Party swept to power in an election the next year, winning almost two-thirds of the seats in parliament with just 34 percent of the vote.

Since then, the party has lost its commanding majority in the legislature just once, in June 2015: the elections were repeated five months later amid an upsurge in violence and an inability of opposition parties to form a coalition government. Leaders of the main pro-Kurdish party, whose boost in support was instrumental in stripping the AK Party of its ability to rule alone after that election, were later jailed on terrorism charges.

In a speech to business group Tusiad earlier this week, Erdogan said that Turkey needed to keep its rate of economic growth at 6 percent or higher, which is more than double the average forecast of economists in Bloomberg surveys for this year. He also said that Turkey would keep the state of emergency in place as long as needed.

In a nearly two-hour speech at the congress, Erdogan highlighted 15 years of economic achievements and attributed any democratic shortcomings to threats from terrorist organizations. He again rejected calls for the removal of the state of emergency, known as Ohal in Turkish, which allows him to rule by decree.

Its not going to be lifted, he said. Are your factories not working? Are the schools closed? Why should the Ohal be lifted?

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Some 150,000 people have been swept up in purges since the coup attempt, including academics, journalists and opposition politicians whove been jailed for months without trial. Last week, arrest warrants were issued for four people, including the owner, at one of the nations last remaining opposition newspapers, Sozcu, which has a vehemently secularist-nationalist bent. They were accused of working with the Islamic group Erdogan says was behind the failed coup, the movement of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Changes made to the partys central board, the MKYK, included adding pro-government businessman Ethem Sancak, whose group of companies includes defense interests and media outlets, according to Aksam newspaper. Ministers Veysi Kaynak and Mehmet Muezzinoglu were dropped, along with Saban Disli, a party coordinator for economic affairs, and Yasin Aktay, the party spokesman.

Changes to the cabinet could be made within a couple of days, Haberturk TV cited AK Party Deputy Bulent Turan as saying. The replacement of 19 of 50 MKYK members signals that 20 to 30 percent of the cabinet could also be replaced, said Mustafa Elitas, another deputy.

Erdogan will present his return to the party as the start of a new era for Turkey, but the countrys economic and political outlook has deteriorated, according to Wolfango Piccoli, co-founder of Teneo Intelligence in London. The change may usher in a cabinet reshuffle in which appointees are named based on loyalties rather than talent, he said.

Erdogan has achieved a long-held dream of establishing a presidential system where the president faces little, if any, checks and balances on his power, Piccoli wrote in a report on Turkey. The AKP has gradually become Erdogans personal vehicle while losing its way and vision.

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Erdogan's Grip on Turkey Tightens as He Retakes Ruling Party

New York Times

Erdogan Says He Will Extend His Sweeping Rule Over Turkey New York Times ISTANBUL In a signal that Turkey faces indefinite rule by decree, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Sunday that a state of emergency, introduced as a temporary measure after last year's failed coup, would continue until the country ... Turkey Courts Disaster After Erdogan's Bodyguards Beat US Citizens On American SoilThe Federalist Turkey's ruling party elects President Erdogan as leaderWashington Post Turkey's ruling party re-elects Recep ErdoganAlbany Times Union CNN -Financial Times -BBC -CNN all 323 news articles »

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Erdogan Says He Will Extend His Sweeping Rule Over Turkey - New York Times