ADD reacts to MSB launching 'lieutenant oath' investigation: 'We received this with heavy hearts'

Following the Military Academy graduation ceremony, the oath taken by newly graduated lieutenants and the images that emerged during this event were heavily criticized and kept on the agenda, particularly by AKP trolls. 

Finally, after it emerged that the Ministry of National Defense had launched an investigation into those who participated in the 'lieutenant oath', a press statement was issued by the Kemalist Thought Association.

The statement included the following expressions:

TO THE PRESS AND THE PUBLIC

It is being said that the Ministry of National Defense has launched an investigation regarding our newly graduated lieutenant children taking a collective oath and chanting the slogan “We are Mustafa Kemal’s soldiers” following the Military Academy (Harbiye) graduation ceremony.

We received this news, which we could not believe when we first heard it and thought could not be true, but later learned from ministry sources was indeed true, with astonishment, great sadness, and heavy hearts.

The Turkish Army was founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who set out from Samsun with a handful of heroes, and was practically created from nothing during those dark days when the Ottoman Empire had completed its natural life and passed into history with the Armistice of Mudros signed on October 30, 1918; when the Turkish Nation was left without politics and a state by the imperialist states that won World War I and was wanted to be driven to the Asian steppes and destroyed; when all the fortresses of the beloved homeland were captured by force and fraud, all its shipyards were entered, all its armies were disbanded, and every corner of the country was effectively occupied; and when those in power within the country were in a state of negligence, delusion, and even treason, and these holders of power even combined their personal interests with the political ambitions of the invaders, and the nation was ruined and exhausted in poverty and destitution. Our Glorious Army, which our nation embraced with determination and resolve, reached victory under the Commandership-in-Chief of the Great Atatürk and saved the homeland from occupation and the nation from captivity and humiliation. 

For this reason, the Turkish Army is Mustafa Kemal’s Army, every Turkish Soldier is Mustafa Kemal’s Soldier, and Veteran Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is the eternal Commander-in-Chief of the Turkish Army and the unchangeable leader of every Turk who calls these lands “My Homeland.” This is a fact of historical science. Those who govern our country and those who aspire to govern it know this fact, should know it, and those who still do not know it must learn it.

At the Military Academy, where Minister of National Defense Yaşar Güler is also a graduate, a ceremony is held every year on the anniversary of March 13, 1899, the date of Atatürk’s entry. A roll call is held at this ceremony. When Atatürk’s epaulet number, 1283, which is not given to any student, is read, all students stand up and shout “Present” in unison. This is a Harbiye tradition that has continued for years.

The fact that newly graduated lieutenants, raised with this tradition, commemorated their eternal Commander-in-Chief on the day they joined the defense of the homeland, expressed their loyalty to the Republic, the laws, the homeland, and the nation, and shouted “We are Mustafa Kemal’s soldiers” together is not a behavior to be investigated, but one to be applauded. Indeed, except for a very small minority who tried to find fault with this applaudable behavior of our young children and even attempted to lynch them, the overwhelming majority of our nation watched our lieutenants with pride, embraced them, and applauded them wholeheartedly. 

The Kemalist Thought Association, with its 352 branches, 60 representative offices, and 68 thousand members, applauds its lieutenant children wholeheartedly, states that it stands by them, and shouts with its loudest voice; WE ARE MUSTAFA KEMAL’S SOLDIERS!

Respectfully,

KEMALIST THOUGHT ASSOCIATION HEADQUARTERS