Letter from Arif Sağ to Kılıçdaroğlu: You should go down in history like İsmet İnönü, who handed over the trust to the younger generations

Turkish Folk Music artist Arif Sağ wrote a letter to the party's chairman, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, ahead of the CHP Congress to be held this weekend. Sağ asked Kılıçdaroğlu not to enter the race for the chairmanship.

''In our eyes, your chairmanship is a very special, very precious threshold in our thousands of years of Anatolian history. Your presidency would have been the same, but it did not happen'' said Arif Sağ, noting that Kılıçdaroğlu should now withdraw from the leadership race.

The letter, which was shared by journalist İsmail Saymaz in his column in Sözcü, included the following statements:

"My very dear chairman, I am writing this letter as a comrade of yours who has spent his 78-year life protecting his society, culture, and faith, and who, like you, has spent it defending his society and culture against all kinds of attacks and injustices. I consider it an important duty to share my views with you at this historical stage, with the responsibility I feel toward my poor, neglected, and oppressed Alevi community and faith, from which I emerged.

We are the children of a society that has never seen better days in these lands, raised in the midst of impossibilities, sometimes by our mothers and fathers not eating the last morsel of bread on the table. Our mothers and fathers turned the dry soil of Anatolia into bread for us. Our grandfathers and grandmothers hid and watched over their children in our neglected villages, on the tops of mountains where birds do not fly and caravans do not pass; they brought this society to where it is today. They never gave up on labor, production, and calling each other 'soul'. As a child of such a society, you became the hope of millions with your beautiful heart and your ideas, and with your presidential candidacy, where you would shape the fate of the country. You carried the rule of honesty, justice, and brotherhood to all hearts. Not a single person could speak against your honesty and virtues, and they cannot. As someone representing us, you did not embarrass us.

In our eyes, your chairmanship is a very special, very precious threshold in our thousands of years of Anatolian history. Your presidency would have been the same, but it did not happen; if it had, the fate of these lands would have changed for historical and ideological reasons, and I would have been the one to rejoice the most. Once again, I thank you very much for this unique contribution you have made to the brotherhood of this country, in addition to all the struggles you have waged and the long road you have walked.

We have gone through a shattering period. We did not get what we deserved. Millions of people who walked with us for democracy, equality, and a beautiful life in our country did not get what they deserved either. Our children and our youth are wondering what to do. Now, it is time for all of us to look to the future.

'DO NOT ENTER THE RACE'

The last resort of this society is the CHP, its party, which it risks all kinds of adversity to keep alive with labor and suffering. Because our party is our indispensable guarantee for those who have identities like ours in this country.

With your will, our party started its democratic processes worthy of itself, overcame the election defeat without drifting into dangerous pursuits, and completed its provincial congresses with maturity.

With the wisdom and perfection you received from your family, who have served and guided society throughout history, you managed these difficult days with your mature attitude and brought the CHP to a safe harbor.

However, today we are at a historical threshold, again on the verge of difficult days.

As of today, a change of duty brought about by life should be an expression not of losing, but of handing over the duty, of transferring the historical burden you have shouldered on behalf of all of us through democratic functioning. In this process, you should be a pioneer and a subject with your attitude, and you should go down in history like İsmet İnönü, the commander of the Western Front, who handed over the trust to the younger generations on May 8, 1972.

What befits us and our historical burden is not to enter such a race.

You are a child of a great path that has always been a servant of service with the understanding of 'hand in hand, hand to the Truth'.

You are a child of a great hearth that has instilled in us through their lives the culture of being 'turab' (dust) in these lands for centuries since your ancestors, of being a perfect human being; of being a person of state, not of ambition and arrogance.

It is not right for either your beautiful labor or this great path, processed with manners and etiquette, to be put into a race, to be put on a scale.

'GIVE A HAND TO THE YOUTH'

There is a saying we hear from the minstrels and the loyal ones that we value above all else: 'The Path is greater than all...'

For centuries, our mothers, fathers, grandfathers, and siblings have kept the path moving by prioritizing the position of service above all else, stepping back when necessary. At the stage we have reached, I think this political race will harm the values you represent and our society, and as a comrade of yours, I feel the responsibility to tell you that you should not be in such a race.

Now, what befits you is to lead our party, whose vital place and importance for us is indisputable, to renew and grow. My wish is that, without putting anyone in a difficult position, you look into the eyes of our citizens, the wounded hearts you have healed, and the people you have given hope to, and say, 'My dear children, I am a true democrat, I am a true Republican,' and give a hand to the youth so that they can draw the new route of our party, which you have carried to a safe harbor. My wish is that you take your honorable place in the memory of this nation that befits you, by showing us once again the value of knowing the path, manners, and etiquette. This is what befits us."