President Erdoğan: We will achieve our goal of building a great and strong Turkey
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 5th Legislative Year of the 27th Term of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey will be beneficial to our country, our nation and this august institution. I pay homage to all members of our National Assembly who have served our country in the Grand National Assembly, which is the bastion and the driving force of our National Struggle, since its inauguration.
I wish good health and well-being on all of our members who are alive and Allah’s compassion on those who have passed away after having served in our National Assembly in the course of more than a century since its establishment.
I extend my gratitude to Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the first Speaker of the National Assembly and the founder of our Republic, and all others who made significant contributions to the independence and future of our Republic. I commemorate with gratitude the memory of our martyrs and veterans who fought at the cost of their lives to ensure that our existence on this land, which we have embraced as our homeland since the Manzikert Victory, will continue forever. With the same understanding, I send my best wishes to our soldiers and security forces who are on duty and pray that Allah will protect them and make them all victorious. Our National Assembly is unique as it has been honored twice with the title of veteran, and has never deviated from serving its country and nation, regardless of the circumstances.
“WE WILL ACHIEVE OUR GOAL OF BUILDING A GREAT AND STRONG TURKEY”
As in the times of our National Struggle, our National Assembly did not allow any vile hands to touch this blessed land, this blessed roof on July 15. There is no doubt that history records the sacrifice and efforts of the members of parliament with great appreciation as you serve your country by working day and night through the increasingly busy legislative years.
Our nation now knows that by Allah’s blessing, our country will not falter if the lights of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey are on, the Assembly is in session and our members are at work. I believe that all statements made in the parliament are uttered with the best interests of the people in mind. Like in every struggle we engaged in together with our nation and its representatives, I believe that we will achieve our goal of building a great and strong Turkey together.
“WE WILL LOOK TO THE FUTURE BY LEARNING FROM EACH EXPERIENCE”
I have no doubt that our National Assembly, whose productivity has further increased in recent years, will fulfill its responsibilities in reaching our 2023 goals and realizing our 2053 vision. I hope that our recent proposal to introduce a new
Constitution, to be drafted for the first time in the history of our country directly by national will, will be successfully implemented by our National Assembly. A new Constitution to be prepared, if possible, with the consensus of the whole parliament will be the best gift we can present our nation in 2023. To this end, we expect the parties that have a group in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey to share their proposals for the new Constitution with the public as soon as possible.
Our sense of responsibility has guided us in this endeavor and we are making our preparations in this respect. In the end, the final say will of course rest with the Grand National Assembly.
When we gathered last year for the inauguration of the new legislative year, we expressed support and sent our prayers to our Azeri brothers who were fighting to liberate Karabakh and the occupied territories. Thankfully, this difficult 44-day struggle resulted in the victory of Azerbaijan. Thus, the lands of Azerbaijan and Karabakh, which were under occupation for nearly 30 years, have been liberated.
We visited Baku and Shusha and shared the joy of our Azeri brothers and sisters.
God willing, we will meet our Azeri brothers and sisters again in the coming weeks. The developments during and after the Karabakh war served as a litmus test for us as well as our Azeri brothers. We will never forget the attitudes drenched in spite and the hatred towards a country that was struggling to liberate its occupied lands, and towards Turkey who voiced her support. We will look to the future by learning from each experience.
“WE WILL ALWAYS STAND BY THE OPPRESSED POPULATIONS”
We know the value and worth of brotherhood, friendship, comradeship, solidarity and cooperation, and consider these aspects in every step we take. We have been acting with this understanding in all parts of the world including in Syria, Libya, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Somalia and Afghanistan. As we protected our rights and interests in the Mediterranean, we supported our Turkish Cypriot brothers in their efforts towards a two-state solution. In this context, we have taken, and will continue to take, many important steps, including the reopening of Maraş. We will continue to fight on all platforms for the protection of the rights of Turkish and Muslim elements in Western Thrace, which are deriving from international agreements. While defending the rights of our Crimean brothers on the basis of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, we will also follow up to ensure that the Uyghur Turks are able to enjoy their human rights in the widest possible manner on the basis of China’s territorial integrity. We will keep our hearts open to everyone, from Palestine and Jerusalem to Kashmir, from Rohingya Muslims to people living inside the straightjacket of insecurity and poverty in Africa.
We will always try to stand by the oppressed populations, wherever they may be. Praise be to Allah, the history of our country and nation is not marred by the shame of colonialism, the smirch of genocide, or the stain of iniquity and injustice. We have nothing to be ashamed of; that is why we are proud to express our criticism and proposals in a sincere way. This is the reason why our argument regarding ‘the World is bigger than 5’, which was conceived in order to criticize the incompatibility of the structure of the United Nations Security Council and has since expanded to include all of the flaws in the global system, has been welcomed so widely. Every development in our region and in the world confirms the accuracy of this argument. The new Turkish House, which we inaugurated in New York recently, has become a historic and glorious symbol of how our country embraces all of humanity. Our new Turkish House, inaugurated with the participation of many guests, including the Secretary General of the United Nations, will serve all our friends and brothers along with our own citizens and officials. We are happy to present such a magnificent edifice to our country; we have personally witnessed that the Turkish House has already increased Turkey’s prestige in the international arena. There was a double-headed eagle facing east and west, and thus embracing a wide geography, on the coat of arms of the state that made Anatolia our homeland a thousand years ago.
“DURING THE SYRIAN CRISIS WE WITNESSED HOW INCAPABLE THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY WAS”
Founded on such a legacy, Turkey has close emotional ties with its region and no one has the right to try to break these ties. During the Syrian crisis, which is now in its 10th year, we witnessed how incapable the international community was in terms of effective intervention, humanitarian support, and management of the refugee influx. While Turkey alone opened its arms to 4 million victims, others panicked when faced with a few thousand refugees on their borders, and acted in an inhuman way, abandoning fundamental rights and law. Almost every day, we come across people tortured and stripped of all of their belongings, left to die on their deflated boats or forced to return. The perpetrators behind these inhuman practices are also violating the United Nation Refugee Convention and its resolutions.
As a matter of fact, the structure established by the European Union to oversee the work related to the refugee traffic in the region is also gradually seizing its activities. No statistics can be kept about the thousands of people who lose their lives on the journey of hope in the dark waters of the Mediterranean every year. The fate of tens of thousands of refugee children who disappeared in Europe is still unknown. Apart from the initiatives taken by our members of parliament, there is no significant effort or work on this issue. Yet, these issues alone should have been enough to mobilize societies with a conscience, good morals and respect for humanity to hold those responsible to account.
“SOME COUNTRIES CONTINUE TO USE DAESH AS A PRETEXT TO SUPPORT TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS”
We experience a similar hypocrisy regarding terrorist organizations in Syria. None of those who ravaged the region under the pretext of fighting DAESH actually fought against this organization. Turkey alone took the challenge of facing this vicious organization in the field and, in a short period of time, burst its balloon that was constantly inflated by others. But some countries continue to use DAESH as a pretext to support terrorist organizations or the regime that fights its
own people in Syria. Needless to say, we know that everyone is pursuing their own agenda in the region under the guise of fighting terrorism. Therefore, it is our duty to stand by what is right and just in the face of those who allow hundreds of thousands of people to die and millions of people to be driven from their homes and homelands into misery. We have not been dragged into an insurmountable security or welfare crisis for doing our humanitarian duty. However, those who abandoned their humanity for their own purposes will never find peace.
Each political and social turmoil and every change in nature demonstrate to those who think that the world revolves around them and that everyone else is obliged to serve them, that this is not the case. It will soon be better understood that famine in Africa is a problem not only for those living there, but for all humanity. It will soon be better understood that the melting of the glaciers on the poles is not a problem only for the penguins, but for all living beings, especially humans. In time, it will be better understood that the tragedies experienced by people escaping domestic conflict in far and remote corners of the world may come to pass for everyone.
“OUR NATIONAL ASSEMBLY WILL PLAY A UNIQUE ROLE IN SHAPING THE NEXT CENTURY”
In short, it will become obvious that no one lives in absolute security and prosperity, and that everyone is a part of this great world that is both blessed and burdensome. In this context, Turkey’s vision based on strengthening and protecting its democracy and development will enable our country to reach its well-deserved standing in its region and in the world. The 2023 Goals so named to mark the centennial of our Republic, will be the first stop in this vision. I wholeheartedly believe that our National Assembly will play a unique role in shaping the next century, just as it did over the past century. The breakthroughs that we have achieved in the public and national sphere in the past 19 years, including in education, healthcare, security, justice, transportation and energy constitute the pillars of this vision.
All individuals in our country without exception as well as the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in particular must embrace this vision, which is no longer political but has long been adopted as our national goals. Because, there is no other Turkey for any of us. There is no other homeland for any of us. There is no other state for any of us. There is no other future for any of us. We should never forget that we cannot grow if we are divided. We cannot become stronger if we are divided. We cannot deepen the roots of brotherhood by fueling enmity. We cannot advance our democracy by clinging to obsessions. We cannot broaden our horizons by giving up the values that make us who we are.
“WE NEED TO STAND UNITED BY EMPHASIZING OUR COMMONALITIES”
The state of affairs in the world suggests that we need to stand firmly united by emphasizing our commonalities, not our differences. We watch the bitter example of the suffering of societies and countries that fail to do this. They have so far not been able to drive Turkey into such a situation and God willing, they will never succeed. I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who contributed to our success with their foresight, acumen, courage, heroism and hard work. In the meantime, one of our greatest services to our country has been the transformation in our security strategies. Thanks to a new understanding of security, which is based on identifying and eliminating threats at their origin, we have prevented the creation of one or more terror corridors right by our borders.
In all of its dimensions, from rights and freedoms to development, we have solved the so-called ‘Kurdish issue’, which has been abused for years by many groups, including terrorist organizations. Just as we put an end to the policies of rejection, denial and assimilation, as we promised our citizens in Diyarbakır, just as we broke the chain of underdevelopment, we will unmask those who still want to take advantage of this issue. This is how we launched a period in which Diyarbakır
Mothers evoked great fear in the terrorist organization with their glorious resistance and revealed the true faces of its political extensions. I would like to take this occasion to once again salute the Diyarbakır Mothers.”
