Erdoğan's message on trustees after cabinet meeting: 'You cannot engage in politics by leaning on terror'

President Erdoğan spoke after the Cabinet meeting. On Erdoğan's agenda were the Esenyurt municipality, where a trustee was appointed, and the Republican People's Party (CHP) leadership. Highlights from Erdoğan's statements are as follows:

"Over the last 22 years, we have had the happiness of bringing countless projects, facilities, services, investments, and accomplishments to Turkey that would be impossible to count. Instead of a democracy marred by tutelage, we have established a true democracy in our country where no power or focus is above the national will. By bringing stability to the administration, we ended the era of patchwork coalitions that lasted barely a year or two, which fueled the tutelage ambitions of oligarchic structures that drained Turkey's strength and energy. By transitioning to the Presidential government system, we ensured that stability in governance became institutionalized, permanent, and continuous. I want to say this once again today with great pride: During our governments, Turkey has broken record after record in all areas without dispute and has achieved successes that will be written in history in golden letters."

"The 22 years between 2002 and 2024 have been etched into memory as the brightest and most magnificent years of our Republican history in terms of services, works, investments, reforms, and prosperity. Do not pay attention to those who romanticize the old Turkey. Their concern is not the deprivations and persecutions the nation experienced in the old Turkey, but their own personal and factional interests. An important achievement of our country's last 22 years is that we have removed the masks from the faces of those who use the nation's common values for their own hidden agendas. For exactly 22 years, we have been concerned with properly protecting the nation's trust, being worthy of the nation's favor and confidence, carrying the banner of service to Turkey with glory, honor, and pride—in other words, paying our debt of gratitude to our people in the best way possible; we are waging a sincere struggle for this. Of course, we did not reach these days easily; we were exposed to many betrayals, from the traps of tutelage to coup attempts and terrorism, and we repelled many insidious attacks. Even the fact that we thwarted a vile attack and a vile plan on the night of July 15 that targeted our independence and our future, by turning it back on its domestic and foreign planners, is a historic success."

TRUSTEE STATEMENT: "WE WILL NOT ALLOW THE TERRORIST ORGANIZATION TO ESTABLISH A RACKETEERING SYSTEM"

"We ended the era of patchwork coalitions. Do not pay attention to those who romanticize the old Turkey; their concern is their own personal and factional interests. For exactly 22 years, we have been concerned with protecting the nation's trust, being worthy of the nation's confidence—in other words, paying our debt of gratitude to our people.

Our struggle is against those who have inflicted the scourge of terrorism upon us. We will establish a climate free of terror. There is no place for terror-backed politics in Turkey's future.

We will rid our country of this burden of terror forever. The determination of our People's Alliance (Cumhur İttifakı) on this matter is at the highest level.

We will not allow the terrorist organization to establish a racketeering system through municipalities.

The fact that the Esenyurt Mayor appears to be in another party on paper does not change the reality.

We are watching Turkey's second-largest party sway left and right as if its rudder is broken. They are holding demonstrations on a bus together with urban bandits."

"WE HEAR THAT OBJECTIONS ARE RISING FROM WITHIN THE CHP'S OWN RANKS"

"You see the Chairman of this party one day in Ankara talking about the homeland, the nation, the flag, and the republic, and the next day you see the same person in another corner of the country holding a pirate rally on the same bus with those who openly threaten Turkey, those who praise vile terrorist acts, and urban bandits. In essence, all these events show us this: the alliance established by someone for their personal career is not 'Turkifying' the allies of the country's oldest party, but rather infecting, poisoning, and diverting the main opposition from its founding values."

"We see that there is no longer a main opposition, but rather an opposition. This party is gradually taking on the colors of its alliance partners. Indeed, this similarity is also reflected in their political language and style. In other words, as the saying goes, 'grapes darken by looking at each other.' We hear and read that justified objections to this degeneration are rising from within the party's own ranks. I say it again."