'It is a religious duty for Turks and Kurds to love one another'

MHP Chairman Devlet Bahçeli attended the "Ziya Gökalp Symposium on the Centenary of His Passing," organized by the Turkish Academy of Political, Social, and Strategic Research Foundation.

Here is the speech delivered by Bahçeli at the symposium:

"I pray for God's mercy upon our elders who served the honor of Turkish existence and survival, and who shed light on our intellectual and moral life with their efforts and works; I express our gratitude to those who are still alive.

Human beings are enemies of what they do not know, in the world of what they do know. Those whose eyes are covered by a black veil, whose hearts have hardened, and whose perspectives intersect at zero have no curiosity to know or recognize. We are on the inviting and gracious path of knowing and recognizing.

A true intellectual is an ally who brings ink and paper together on white pages. The revolutionary upheavals he lived through and the noise of our empire's collapse have not yet been fully grasped. It is a responsibility that falls upon everyone to remember his 48-year life with gratitude and reflect it into our social and political life.

If there is a Turk who does not love Kurds, they are not a Turk. If there is a Kurd who does not love Turks, they are not a Kurd. First of all, a nation is not a geographical group. It is not a necessity for those living a shared political life within an empire. In the formation and evolution of a nation, besides other important elements, this is what is pointed to. The distilled definition of a nation is this: It is a cultural group that is common in terms of language.

The Grey Wolf was Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The national struggle was the second Ergenekon process.

Prison corners, years of exile, unfair criticisms, and baseless accusations could not make the late Gökalp abandon his cause.

Even if centuries pass, the wounds will not heal. While the wheels of exploitation turn rapidly, the sharing, imperialist expansionism, economic problems, and robberies have specifically targeted our region.

On the 101st anniversary of the Republic of Turkey, we will allow no other option but to overcome every kind of threat and murder plot with the spirit of national solidarity. We have learned our lesson from history, line by line. We are Turks, we are Turkists, we are Turkish nationalists. Let no one enter a race with us in the lane of serving Turkishness. Let them not be eager for word duels, petty squabbles, or nooses with a life and political history they cannot handle. We will leave those ambitions unfulfilled and make them pay dearly. We do not even consider those who sell their conscience for position and status as human beings.

It is a warning for internal peace that those with crippled ambitions should refrain from violating borders and violating nerves. The Zionist villainy that deploys terrorist organizations to the field will never succeed. The efforts of those who attack our national industry with trigger-happy killers are in vain. If the genocidal ones have iron domes, we have our chests full of faith. Israel's attack on Iran under the pretext of retaliation is an operation. The striking of Iran is an operational simulation that will control the lines of tension, both large and small, that will arise from regional reflexes. I condemn the attack on Iran. I see the clearing of weeds as an urgent necessity.

They are resorting to intelligence schemes. Please let us be vigilant. It is being engineered for us to fear one another. The terrorist attack on the TUSAŞ facilities has clearly revealed whose puppet the PKK is. The PKK is an enemy of every living creature. The bloody message has been trampled under our feet. The traitors have been eliminated. Our destiny is our thousand-year brotherhood.

I declare with determination that we will stand by our President to the end in his struggle to destroy terrorism at its source and prevent the establishment of a terrorist state."

News Source: 12punto