"LIBERATION"

“LIBERATION” is a magical word. It embodies freedom, hope, and happiness. It leaves the accumulated darkness behind.

For those who opened their eyes to the world in Atatürk’s Turkey, the concept of LIBERATION carries through the years into the heart the honor of giving one’s life for a free and independent homeland, the perseverance and determination to struggle tirelessly, and the hope of living as a civilized individual.

LIBERATION is a collective act. The nation does not forgive those who set out to save only themselves, those who fled by boarding enemy warships, or those who collaborated with the enemy and betrayed the homeland.

The War of Independence was not won only against the enemy. It was also won against the traitors.

Mustafa Kemal Pasha waged the Struggle for Liberation on two fronts. While fighting the enemy on the external front, he was forced to wage a relentless struggle against traitors on the internal front.

• During the most critical days of the war, the opposition group within the Parliament tried to strip him of his authority as Commander-in-Chief and remove him from Ankara.

• With a legislative proposal submitted on December 2, 1922, an attempt was made to usurp the right to be a member of parliament by demanding that the right be conditional upon having been born within the borders of Turkey at that time, or, if born outside those borders, having resided in the electoral district for 5 years.

• His closest comrades-in-arms opposed the proclamation of the Republic and declared their loyalty to the Caliph.

• The assassination attempt in İzmir reached as far as his innermost circle.

The 57th Regiment, which was thrown into the fire and entirely martyred after Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Kemal gave the order to his soldiers at Conkbayırı, swallowing his tears, saying, “I do not order you to attack, I order you to die. In the time that passes until we die, other forces will come to our place, and other commanders will take control,” was the army of the Nation. So, who were those who buried themselves in power struggles in Parliament, endangered the National Struggle, and took a stand against Atatürk? Which of them do we remember with gratitude and respect?

Many more examples are enough to show that the destructive struggle on the internal front was based on political competition…

In the process that unfolded, LIBERATION transformed from a struggle against enemy armies into a struggle to eliminate the destruction caused by all the economic, social, cultural, and legal conditions in which the country found itself.

We are going through days where we need democracy, freedom, fair justice, prosperity, and most importantly, the recovery of Atatürk’s Turkey, as much as we need water and air.

In this most difficult period of the democratic struggle for liberation, those who do not learn from history have begun to wound the nation’s conscience with primitive feelings of revenge and a desire to seize seats in politics.

The effort they spent to transform and strip the Party of the Republic of its principles must have remained unfinished, so now they are trying to achieve their goal through a “silence resistance” to tear it down and destroy it.

Yet, when we rewind the film, the scenes that come to life in our memories are filled with the recollections of being left at the mercy of the AKP. If those responsible for these memories had expressed regret, it might have at least softened hearts.

For example, the Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu disaster, the 39 parliamentary seats gifted to parties with no voter base in the last elections, the presidential candidacy that was known to be lost, and all the effort spent to de-CHP-ize the CHP, and many more…

We are in days when one must think about how history will label those who compete to add fuel to the fire of conspiracy against the CHP, while party members who remained silent for years to avoid harming the party and were subjected to troll attacks for criticizing are setting sail for a new hope.

Shouldn't those who labeled the CHP delegates—delegates structured by the former administration, no less—as a monument of dishonor bought and sold with money, have also calculated how they would look them in the face in the future?

It is clear that the ruling party has pinned its only hope on the destruction of the CHP. Having seen that it could not succeed with lies and slanders for years, it has now realized it cannot succeed by putting people in dungeons either, and this time it has turned to an insidious plan. To destroy the CHP by tearing it into pieces and using primitive feelings of revenge…

The AKP is burning with the dream of a Turkey without the CHP.

After all, how dare the CHP be the leading party, how dare it be in power???

Totalitarian regimes’ primary goals are to first demonize and then destroy the opposition that does not submit to them. Without doing this, it is impossible to bring society under control in all its aspects. Complete obedience and an exalted submission to the leader are expected from the public. A strictly disciplined and highly punitive system is established. Law gives way to a command-and-control order. This system is presented to society as a “matter of survival.”

In this system, the total destruction of a rebellious opposition is essential.

The test of to what extent those who defend democracy and walk saying “rights-law-justice” have internalized these values is being given these days.

What is more important than all of this is that the existence and power of the CHP carry meanings far greater than just being a political party.

The CHP is Turkey… The CHP is the guarantor and representative of the Republic of Turkey and the Founding Will.

The nation will give the most meaningful warning to those who try to sacrifice the CHP for their personal ambitions and interests, and to those who hinder Turkey’s democratic struggle for LIBERATION; history will never forgive them.