Success Quote by Recep Tayyip Erdogan

“Different method and speed” is the velvet glove; “the standard… should not be lowered” is the fist inside it. Erdogan’s line works because it presents itself as tolerant pragmatism while quietly setting a hierarchy: diversity of paths is permitted, but only toward an end-state defined somewhere above national preference. In one sentence, he offers flexibility, then yanks the leash.

As a sitting president, Erdogan is speaking in the language of international bargaining, where patience is currency and “standards” are weapons. The phrasing signals to external audiences - often the EU, NATO partners, and other rule-setting blocs - that Turkey can acknowledge gradualism without granting anyone an excuse to backslide or to move the goalposts. It’s also a bid to seize the moral high ground: if outcomes matter, then those who compromise standards look weak, hypocritical, or politically expedient.

The subtext is two-directional. Outwardly, it reads as a demand for equal treatment: don’t impose double standards, don’t dilute the promised destination when it’s Turkey at the door. Inwardly, it’s a domesticated message about sovereignty and pride: we will move on our timetable, but we refuse to be judged by a sliding scale that conveniently changes when power shifts.

Erdogan’s rhetorical trick is that “the expected end-state” stays conveniently undefined. That ambiguity lets him invoke democracy, security, modernization, or cultural integrity depending on the room - a modular phrase built for diplomacy, and for plausible deniability when standards collide.