Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Turkey’s friend, Guardian reports. “There is no doubt he is our friend,” Premier said, adding “as a friend so far we have very good relations and have had no difficulty at all.”

Asked whether the President of France Nicolas Sarkozy is Turkey’s friend, Erdogan responded: “Among leaders in Europe there are those who have prejudices against Turkey, like France and Germany. Previously under Mr Chirac, we had excellent relations [with France] and he was very positive towards Turkey. But during the time of Mr Sarkozy, this is not the case. It is an unfair attitude. The European Union is violating its own rules.”

“Being in the European Union we would be building bridges between the 1.5bn people of Muslim world to the non-Muslim world. They have to see this. If they ignore it, it brings weakness to the EU,” underlined the Prime Minister.

Erdogan also commented on the congratulation’s to Ahmadinejad after the presidential race. Though the elections were disputable and caused rallies in Iran. “Mr Ahmadinejad was declared to be the winner, not officially, but with a large vote difference, and since he is someone we have met before, we called to congratulate him,” outlined the Turkish Premier.