Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's wife Emine Erdogan said that Turkish women had made an exemplary breakthrough in their struggle for more equality and more power in economic, social and political life.

Erdogan addressed the 55th session of UN Commission on the Status of Women as an honorary guest.

"A century ago, mankind was able to watch only his/her town and country. But today, we can reach information about what is going on even in the most remote parts of the world. Information enlightens us, but it also brings new responsibilities. While we are talking here, there are children dying somewhere in the world, there are children crying for a piece of bread. And there are women who are subject to domestic violence at this very moment. I saw women who lost all their beloved ones in the flood disaster in Pakistan. I saw women who lost their children, husbands, hope and future in Palestine, Iraq, Bosnia or in Darfur. I am sure that you all saw those women," she said.

"Today, women demand neither food nor mercy. Today, they demand their fundamental rights, their right of education, their right of equality. They want to learn more for themselves and for their children. They want more education opportunities for the next generations," she said.

Emine Erdogan also attended a meeting organized by Istanbul Research Center on Women (IKAM) in cooperation with Turkey's Permanent Mission to the UN.

"Turkey has acquired a unique position in its region with reforms it made in the last years and with its high democratic standards. As a country with a majority of Muslim population, Turkey made successful reforms in universal human rights and democratization," she said.

"There is a serious problem about women's rights in the world. Women, especially in the under-developed countries, are subject to discrimination, violence, poverty and terror," she said.

"In the last eight years, 80 universities were founded in Turkey. I believe that Turkey will be a brighter country in the future with its educated women," she concluded.

Erdogan also met with former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet who appointed as the first head of UN Women.

AA