Don’t Be Typical Bureaucrats; Stay Close to Your Citizens

Insisting that everyone fight to change the mentality of "the frowning, aloof public servant who is insensitive to social demands," Erdogan said that public officials exercising state authority should never consider themselves privileged.

The prime minister said they were aiming at European Union norms in economic and social areas and emphasized that the attitude of public officials was as important as the law in protecting fundamental rights and freedoms. Telling the governors, "Care for the issue of human rights as if you were mobilizing for a war," Erdogan went on to say that citizens wanted human rights to be respected, poverty and wrongdoing to be eliminated, and serenity and confidence to be secured for the future.