9 September Kemalist Platform sets out: We will bring back the Atatürk Republic!

The 9 September Kemalist Platform, founded by intellectuals including many members of parliament, trade unionists, legal experts, and representatives of non-governmental organizations such as Kemal Anadol, Nur Serter, Bülent Baratalı, Birol Başaran, Hüseyin Özbek, Suay Karaman, Necla Kendigelen, Osman Gazi Oktay, Dilek Akagün, Mustafa Çetin, Adnan Boğa, Ergün Aydoğan, and Erdal Karademir, met in İzmir on the 101st anniversary of the city's liberation from enemy occupation.

Gathering at the Tepekule Congress and Exhibition Center in Bayraklı, the platform members announced their principles and founding objectives to the public through a declaration. In the declaration read by 23rd and 24th term CHP Istanbul MP Nur Serter, it was stated, “In the 100th year of our Republic, it is our debt to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to bring light back to our country and our nation.”

Delivering the opening speech of the meeting, former CHP MP Kemal Anadol stated that the May 14–28 elections were a very important turning point. Stating that Turkey has entered a dark tunnel, Anadol said, “We have been in this tunnel for 21 years. The public is forced to wear the high cost of living like a shirt of fire. The middle class is being officially liquidated. Neo-liberalism is running over our people like a steamroller with all its brutality. Before the May 14 elections, an atmosphere never before seen in any election was created on the opposition side. A psychological trauma was inflicted on society by saying, ‘This is the last exit before the bridge. This is the last election. If this election is lost, there will be no more elections in Turkey.’ Those who formed the Table of Six were free to make every kind of mistake. But those who truly wanted the one-man regime to go, those who saw what would happen, and those who objected were accused of being ‘the Palace’s man.’ Mistakes were piled upon mistakes. In the end, frustration and disappointment settled over society like a fog.”

“WE WILL LIGHT A BEACON OF HOPE”

Announcing their founding objectives with the words, “As the great Atatürk said, ‘There are no hopeless situations, there are hopeless people. I have never lost my hope.’ We, those who have not lost hope and who want to light a beacon of hope for the people again, have come together,” Anadol emphasized that they have no intention of forming a political party.

Stating that they uphold the institutional identity of the CHP but criticize its executive cadres, Anadol said, “We never say a bad word about the legal personality of the CHP, which is one of Atatürk’s two greatest works. We criticize the administrators who break the people’s hope and lead them to defeat. On one side, a chairman clinging to his seat; on the other, a ‘change’ rhetoric that is ownerless, ideology-free, and whose nature is unclear… We cannot take sides here. As Kemalists, we are here to gather those who say ‘The remedy is Kemalism’ under a single roof. We are here as those who have internalized the Six Arrows.”

SERTER: ATATÜRK’S PARTY IS UNFORTUNATELY UNDER OCCUPATION

One of the speakers, 23rd and 24th term CHP Istanbul MP Nur Serter, stated that the CHP has been detached from Atatürk’s ideology and said, “We tried very hard to make the CHP Atatürk’s party again, but it didn’t happen. Now we must set out to make the Republic Atatürk’s Republic again. That is what the 9 September Kemalist Platform is for.” Noting that they will fill the squares again with the 9 September Kemalist Platform, Serter said, “We will reach millions again. We must enter the struggle to represent this nation once more.”

News Source: 12punto