President Erdoğan: We are determined to ensure that Türkiye takes steps to achieve its goals as an island of stability in the midst of global political, economic and military power struggles

 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered the opening speech of the 5th Legislative Year of the 27th Term of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (GNAT).

President Erdoğan said: “I hope that the 6th Legislative Year of the 27th Term of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye will bring good tidings to all of you as well as to our country and nation. I would like to express my gratitude to all members of parliament who served our country under the roof of this great institution since its establishment. I pay my respects to the memory of all deceased members of parliament who served this Assembly since its establishment in 1920.

“FOR TÜRKİYE, INDEPENDENCE AND PROGRESS REPRESENT A RIGHTEOUS STRUGGLE THAT EXTENDS ACROSS TIME”

I respectfully commemorate the first Speaker of the Grand National Assembly, the founder of our Republic, Ghazi Mustafa Kemal as well as all others who worked hard for the development, growth and strengthening of Türkiye. I salute all martyrs and veterans who courageously sacrificed their lives in the last one thousand years to defend our homeland, the unity of our nation, the territorial integrity of our country and the continuation of our state.

For Türkiye, independence and progress represent a righteous struggle that extends across time. We continue to wage the same struggle today both within and beyond our borders. I wish the best to our soldiers, policemen, gendarmerie, coast guard, intelligence officers and security guards who resolutely defend our country against the enemy, in particular the terrorist organizations.

I pray to Allah for protection. May He spare them as well as all members of our nation. The Grand National Assembly of Türkiye has assumed a leading role since the beginning of our national struggle to address issues facing our country and to meet the expectations of our people.

Today, our Assembly continues to fulfill its historic role with the laws enacted during the 27th Term, the draft bills pending before the commissions and the General Assembly as well as other work planned for the future.

Today, we begin the final legislative year of the 27th Term of the Parliament. I believe that our Assembly will make excellent progress during this legislative year by enacting many critical laws before interrupting its work for the election calendar.

“WE WORK TOGETHER WITH THE LEGISLATURE, THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH AND THE JUDICIARY TOGETHER AND PROCEED ON OUR CHOSEN PATH”

In about 8 months, Türkiye will elect the members of the Grand National Assembly and the President who represents executive power. Elections will take place at a time of historic change both in the world and in our region as centuries-old balances of power are shaken to the core, and political, economic and military power centers shift.

I believe that as the Members of Parliament of the 27th Term, your success in achieving your mission is deeply appreciated by our nation. This great honor will be your greatest legacy to your children. I would like to express my gratitude to each and every one of you personally for your service to our country, nation and the Grand National Assembly. I would also like to thank the political party groups and the Bureau of the Speaker of the Assembly for their contribution to the work of the Assembly both in the commissions and the general assembly.

Our Assembly has a unique place among other parliaments in the world as a “veteran” of our national struggle and, more recently, of the July 15 coup attempt. In the past, it was alleged that our country ‘did not internalize democracy because democracy was established without paying a price.’ However, the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye stands before us today as a beacon for very ambitious democratic and development programs in the last 25 years.

We have before us an Assembly which resisted coup plotters and unequivocally confirmed the supremacy of national will. We have before us an Assembly that valiantly defends the rights and interests of the nation it represents in the face of all manner of threats. We have before us an Assembly that distinguishes itself against global trends by maintaining deep ties with the nation. These are some of the reasons why our parliament and members have to endure slanderous attacks from time to time.

Those who want to treat Türkiye like a colony and their political and economic satellite are not pleased with the dignified stance of our Assembly. However, we do not pay attention to who says what or who wants what; rather, we focus on what our nation needs. We aim to achieve the goals of our country by ensuring that the legislature, the executive branch and the judiciary work together and proceed on our chosen path.

“THIS PARLIAMENT HAS UNDERTAKEN THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL REFORMS IN THE HISTORY OF THE REPUBLIC”

This Parliament has undertaken the most fundamental reforms in the history of the Republic. One of the most important reforms regarding our independence and future is undoubtedly the change that we introduced in the system of government. I believe that the Presidential System of Government strengthened all democratic powers, and made them more effective and efficient.

The legislative, executive and judicial branches who in the past appeared to engage in destructive competition instead of working in democratic harmony, now work for the same goal and support each other. In the future, we aim to develop this system of government further by taking stock of our experience in the last four years in order to address shortcomings and enhance strengths. Our country must be a part of the process of major change taking place in the world and in our region.

We will continue to develop ourselves in line with the needs, expectations, potential and experiences of our country and nation. We follow the wisdom of Yunus Emre who said ‘We are always reborn, no one will be tired of us’. We follow Rumi who encourages us in verse; ‘Now we need to say new things’.

We are committed to this understanding. The steps we take are a manifestation of our responsibility towards our nation, to whom we are wholeheartedly attached. We will establish and implement these additional reforms together with the General Assembly which constitutes the foundation of the Presidential System of Government.

I hope that this topic will be a top priority in the upcoming period for the legislative and the executive branch. Another issue that remains unfulfilled is to introduce a new, civilian, democratically constructed, inclusive, simple and visionary Constitution.

Our sincere calls to action in 2013 and 2021 for a new Constitution were not sufficient to bring about the desired outcome for our country. The first effort was blocked at the joint commission in the Assembly. No concrete response was received to our second call. I believe that the Parliament in the new term will prepare a new Constitution that Türkiye well deserves and shall completely remove the last remnants of coups. We also see this as debt that we owe to future generations, and the greatest achievement we will present to our youth in the future.

God willing, we will complete our work on the New Constitution, just as we realized silent revolutions to enhance the fundamental rights and freedoms of our people. Together, we saved Türkiye from the shame of tutelage, coups, oppression and persecution; we saved our citizens from being discriminated against because of their origin, belief, sect, tradition, dress and culture. With the new Constitution, we also wish to create a legal basis for these gains.

“OUR SECURITY FORCES, MILITARY AND INTELLIGENCE SERVICES LEAVE NO STONE UNTURNED TO FIGHT TERRORISTS”

The last 20 years saw the resolution of many of the issues that had occupied our nation for a long time. One such issue was the concern for peace and security resulting from the bloody attacks of terrorist organizations. For many years, terrorism was the number one problem in our country’s agenda.

We solved these issues to a great extent by eliminating terrorist organizations within our borders and containing them outside our borders through our operations, the measures we have taken and the multi-faceted diplomacy we have pursued, and created a new climate of peace and security. No one with a conscience can deny this fact. The sporadic actions taken by few remaining terrorists are the final attempts of these traitors. Our security forces, military and intelligence services leave no stone unturned to fight terrorists.

We provided our security forces with the means and capabilities that will enable them to carry out their mission of fighting terrorism and protecting our country against regional and global threats. Our strategy is to protect our security and peace by eliminating threats at their source beyond our borders and we implement this strategy by saying that ‘we may arrive unannounced at night.’

Our achievements and services in the last 20 years alleviated the problems of backwardness, poverty and scarcity that ailed our nation for generations. In a moment, I will share with you a summary of our achievements and services so that those with eyes that see, ears that hear, tongues that appreciate and hearts that are not hardened will be reminded of our accomplishments.

Every single person has been touched and their lives improved by our accomplishments and services in education, health, transportation, energy, industry, agriculture, sports and social support. Coups that have been organized a number of times since the beginning of the multi-party system have all been eliminated by our nation, who defended their independence on July 15, and our Parliament, which upheld the national will. On this occasion, I would like to salute the memory of the  martyrs of July 15 and express my gratitude to the members of parliament who put up an epic resistance in the Parliament on the same night.

We had to deal with the severe impact of global crises as we worked to develop and strengthen our country to ensure greater welfare and opportunities for our people. Moreover, we had to deal not only with global crises, but also with attacks directed at our country.

“WE HAVE CHOSEN A PATH THAT WILL PROVIDE UNIQUE GAINS TO OUR COUNTRY”

As a matter of fact, since the presidential and parliamentary elections in June 2018, the world has experienced its greatest challenge since World War II. In addition to the global challenges, we also faced some traps that focused mostly on the economy. All issues that concern our survival as a country and nation are important. However, the economy which has a direct impact on daily lives is of special importance.

Therefore, I would like to share with you the main principles and goals of the economic program that we have been implementing since 2018 in order to better protect ourselves from the destructive effects of global crises such as war and pandemic. We had the opportunity to discuss our approach regarding the Turkish Economic Model in detail with a group of foreign economists in Istanbul yesterday.

As I stated at that meeting, the economic policy we are implementing is not based on an irrational premise that translates into ‘swimming against the tide’. We developed our own model in order to disrupt the insidious schemes aimed to bring our country economically to its knees by employing economic policies which run counter to what has always been considered as good, proper and profitable policy. More importantly, this model has a place in economic science; it has been implemented in the world and it is highly compatible with the current state and potential of our country. Therefore, we have chosen a path that will provide unique gains to our country.

“WE BUILT OUR UNIQUE ECONOMIC MODEL”

Frankly speaking, there are reasons why we changed our economic model. Perhaps, we would not have changed our model for some time if the rules of the game had not been changed against us while the game was being played. However, when our country faced a clear economic attack, we showed the same fortitude we displayed to protect our borders and to oppose coups.

We took advantage of global opportunities and shifted our direction towards the future because we believe that ‘things happen for a reason’. We made use of global and national experience at the highest level to build our unique economic model. First, we took measures to prevent the attacks we were facing. We created necessary mechanisms and allocated resources. We developed a consistent model by rapidly updating our short-, medium- and long-term programs in line with our new economic approach.

We shall continue to share the theoretical framework of this model, the results of its application and our goals with our nation. We did not neglect the world as we chartered our own course. We carefully followed the tragedies of the pandemic and the crises triggered by the Russia-Ukraine War that followed.

Each global development confirms the relevance and accuracy of this unique model which our country created by diverging from classical assumptions. The power of production and employment resulting from the infrastructure we established in the past 20 years has made a significant contribution to the acceptance and success of the Turkish Economic Model.

The reason for this is the fact that we place people, our people, at the heart of our economic model which focuses on ‘growth through investment, employment, production, export and current account surplus’. We designed the model to focus on investment, production and export to ensure that all citizens have confidence in the future as regards their business and livelihood.

We watch as those who previously criticized us strongly for this choice come to accept our understanding in the face of crises in energy, commodities and food. This is the reason why developed countries are implicitly protecting employment beyond what they state in official policy. Otherwise, the consequences of social problems and resulting political instability will be unfathomable. What distinguishes us is the fact that we recognized these realities before others and took a position earlier.

“WE WILL NOT ALLOW OUR CITIZENS TO BE CRUSHED UNDER INFLATION”

That is not to say that we ignore the problems, challenges and fluctuations. We are well aware of the loss in welfare, concerns and expectations of our country and citizens that originate from the uneven rise in the exchange rate and the exorbitant increase in inflation. We started to take measures to prevent these developments from the first day.

You will remember that when the exchange rate started to rise unevenly last December, we prevented panic with a series of measures, including currency-protected deposits. In order to prevent the loss in welfare caused by the increase in inflation, we increased minimum wage, salaries of civil servants, pensions and social assistance at the beginning of the year. With additional adjustments in July, we advanced these increases even further.

We hope to reconsider the situation of all wage earners by the end of the year to compensate for their losses. As we have always said, we will not allow our citizens to be crushed under inflation. We hope to set an example to the world in terms of compensating the losses caused by inflation, which is the biggest problem in all states and in developed countries in particular.

By removing all obstacles one by one, we are determined to ensure that Türkiye takes steps to achieve its goals as an island of stability in the midst of global political, economic and military power struggles. Even though global fluctuations have brought countries to the brink of new kinds of wars waged by unorthodox methods and styles, we aim to diverge positively from this fragile process. We approach some of the recent regional crises in the same way. Our strategy is not to deal with the puppets, but to disrupt the games played by those who hold the strings.”