What is the state of this country, gentlemen?

Bomb lightning descends from the brain of every trench

Extinguishing on the chest of that lion-hearted soldier.

The skies are raining death, the earth is spewing the dead,

What a terrible blizzard, the wreckage of humanity is scattered.

Pouring onto the backs, into the valleys, in torrential downpours.

Heads, eyes, torsos, legs, arms, chins, fingers, hands, feet

These lines by Mehmed Akif Ersoy grab even the person with the weakest imagination by the arm and hurl them into the middle of a front during the War of Independence. Mustafa Kemal, who shouldered these conditions and circumstances alongside the people of Anatolia, dreamed an unimaginable dream: to lift the nation out of the state it was in and raise it to the level of contemporary civilizations. The starting point of the issue is clear, but the distance to be covered to reach the destination is quite arduous and difficult.

On a front where the red earth and the smoke-blackened sky blend together, and the earth and sky shake with noise, while the lifeless bodies of young soldiers lie there, it is not a conceivable state of mind to be able to dream such a distant dream. Despite the horror all around, the power that made Mustafa Kemal make strategic decisions with a cool head is undoubtedly the strength of this dream.

The borders of the National Pact (Misak-ı Milli) are drawn... The war is over, the country is in ruins, and the people have no strength left. Yet, it is not the time to stop and think or to fall into despair. The year is 1923; with the republic proclaimed through a thousand hardships, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his friends begin the construction of the country. Mustafa Kemal's agenda is clear. He loads the state of the country onto the backs of hundreds of rearing white horses running through the fire, and he races toward the future without stopping or resting for 15 years. November 10, 1938, with his passing, the country mourns its abandonment, most of all...

The Republic, which has now taken on a legal personality, is a promise made by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to this nation. This is a contract made between the state and the nation; one of the parties to the agreement is the people, and the other is the Parliament of the Republic of Turkey.

This parliament is responsible for implementing the articles written in Atatürk's agenda that will develop this nation. However, with Atatürk's passing, this agenda fell into the hands of opponents of the republic under the name of multi-party politics, and they began to cross out every article written by Atatürk one by one with their dark, dirty, muddy pens.

The damage done in 85 years has reached unimaginable dimensions. Excluding those who realize this situation and, despite not being in parliament, have taken up the trust and continue the struggle to develop the country at the cost of their lives, existence, and being, it must be said that a large segment of the country is still struggling to accept the situation. For many years, they have only been lamenting, complaining, and assessing the damage. This is a tremendous loss of energy and thought.

Yes, assessing the damage is the first step in solving a problem. However, we have become so captivated by the temptation of being constantly validated by what we tell each other on an island where we isolate ourselves with those like us, surrounded on all four sides by our own voices. Perhaps we do not realize that the island we stand on is being caught in the current and drifting away.

If we look around a little, we will realize that we are actually speaking two separate languages with the same words. There is an unimaginable division within the country. Two segments that feel intense anger toward each other. And everyone finds their own view of life to be one hundred percent correct. While one calls the other "ignorant," "heedless," or "uninformed," the other calls the first "infidel," "irreligious," or "faithless." And everyone is grinding their teeth at the other behind their own truth.

In the first 15 years of the Republic, very serious steps were taken for the cultural revolution in Anatolia; although the traces of this cultural revolution are still felt, unfortunately, this process, which should have covered a very long period, could not be completed. Therefore, deep cracks have formed between the people and the intellectual class. As the language spoken, the places lived in, and the income levels of the two segments diverged, the opportunities and possibilities of the cultural revolution for the people also disappeared.

If the Republic is a promise made by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to this nation and on behalf of every single member of parliament working in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, it must be said with regret and sorrow that you, who have earned the right to enter parliament with the authority to represent the nation, especially by shouting slogans about Atatürk's principles in the squares, have unfortunately failed to fulfill your obligations and could not keep this promise. The contract you signed unfortunately claims the exact opposite of what you are doing now.

You did not keep the promise that the Republic made to the people of this country in your person.

You did not give the value that Mustafa Kemal gave to Sabiha Gökçen, Ayşe Afet İnan, Abdurrahim Tunçak, and in their person to all children and young people, to the children of this country.

For a country that trained the world's first female pilot in the first 15 years of the Republic,

It is a matter of shame that in the 100th year of the Republic, we are talking about child brides, children murdered in madrasas, femicides, dervish lodges and convents, and the power of sects and communities...

However, we have sufficient grounds not to lose hope. The young people of this nation, who study at prestigious universities in many corners of the world and achieve international success, raised with Atatürk's principle of "Free in thought, free in conscience, free in wisdom," are advancing toward the level of contemporary civilizations charted by Mustafa Kemal without bending, without breaking, with perseverance and determination. The existence of these young people is our greatest guarantee against certain segments that have adopted ignorance as a motto and turned their backs on science and the light of reason and modernity. For violence and tyranny are always destined to be defeated in the face of science shining in the light of Atatürk. In the 100th year of our Republic, overcoming this dark age with science, knowledge, and enlightenment is not only possible but also the most essential duty of each of us...