Letter from Ekrem İmamoğlu to the youth! 'You are the ones who will lift Turkey back on its feet'

İBB Mayor and CHP presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, writing from Silivri where he is being held under arrest, criticised both the economic crisis and democratic backsliding in a wide-ranging letter addressed to the youth, emphasising that the future of Turkey rests on young people's shoulders.

Saying "Our greatest call is to our youth," İmamoğlu used the following words in his message to young people: "Our youth, rising to their feet, stand shoulder to shoulder and side by side with all their differences, giving us clues about a new life. You are the ones who will lift Turkey back on its feet."

"THIS GOVERNMENT HAS MADE THE NATION'S POVERTY SUSTAINABLE"

İmamoğlu sharply criticised the current government in his letter. Stating that Turkey is mired in "authoritarianism, injustice, and economic collapse," he said: "Instead of producing solutions to the poverty the nation has fallen into, this government has become preoccupied with protecting its seat. This order, which makes the rich richer and the poor poorer, is a crime committed against the nation."

Saying the government bears responsibility for the deterioration of the economy, İmamoğlu stated: "Poverty is not this nation's fate. The nation cannot shrink while Turkey grows. Our most important duty is to establish a fair order in which everyone receives their share of growth."

"THE ISTANBUL MODEL WILL BE AN EXAMPLE FOR ALL OF TURKEY"

İmamoğlu said they want to extend the "Istanbul Model" they have implemented in Istanbul to all of Turkey, citing numerous examples ranging from social support to nursery services, solidarity programmes to urban investments. "Istanbul has become a city of solidarity. Now is the time to build our Turkey model," he said.

FULL TEXT OF THE ARTICLE

Here is the full text of the article written by İBB Mayor and CHP presidential candidate İmamoğlu from Silivri:

Our country is sinking economically at a time when it is being shaken by crises of justice and democracy. As in all coup processes, we are experiencing the same thing during the 19 March coup attempt process. The further we move from justice and democracy, the more authoritarian we become, income inequality grows, inflation cannot be stopped, poverty deepens — in short, the economy collapses. This means that the shallow equation of "interest rates are the cause, inflation is the result," put forward with the simplicity of ignorance, was not a harbinger of rise but of great catastrophe. In the end, a more accurate equation hits us squarely in the face with all its harshness: oligarchic, despotic regimes and civilian coups are the cause; poverty is the result.

Yet Turkey, rising from Anatolia — the cradle of civilisations — with its history, culture, riches, and people, is a unique country. It is in need of and destined for the most proper utilisation of the blessings bestowed by the Creator. But unfortunately, this country, rising on ancient and fertile lands, has been pushed by the government into a deep impasse where wealth, freedom, justice, and living humanely in safety and peace have become nothing but a dream. The government has turned our country into a dystopia where poverty and injustice roam freely.

"THIS GROTESQUE ORDER THAT MAKES THE POOR EVEN POORER HAS BEEN BUILT"

Despite every hardship, suffering, and hopeless situation, this nation — which works with deep patience and determination for its family, its future, and its country, biting the bullet — has been condemned to this plundering order that, far from receiving the due reward for its labour, takes from its own pockets through heavy taxes and enriches a handful of people. While our nation groans in agony, this grotesque order that makes the rich richer and the poor poorer has been built. Being wealthy is of course not a crime, but this order that makes the rich richer and the poor poorer is a crime committed by the government against the nation.

The duty of governments is to understand the reality of the nation, to confront it, and to overcome crises — not to deepen crises or add new crises on top of existing ones. Instead of producing solutions to the poverty, injustice, and helplessness the nation has fallen into, the government has become preoccupied with protecting a seat it considers its own. No government has ever put our country and our nation through such a period, one in which it is a prisoner of the fear of losing the power it burns with ambition to hold. Without any regard for what it would cost or what price the nation would pay, they set a trap for me and for the entire competitive order alongside me. This trap created a climate of distrust toward our country — above all in the conscience of our beloved nation, and across the entire world. More than 50 billion dollars accumulated by our nation at great cost was burned by this government, and interest rates rose. Beyond that, a certain amount of hot money that came in lured by the savage interest rates — taken from the pockets and tables of the Turkish nation — also left our country.

The government must now accept that the anti-inflation programme, for which all costs have been passed on to our people, has been sacrificed to the power ambitions of a handful of a minority and has collapsed. What is happening in this unjust, broken economic order is called a wealth transfer. The winner is a handful of people; the loser is the nation. The culprit is the government; the one who will deliver the verdict is the nation, impatiently waiting at the ballot box.

"IN MY CELL IN SİLİVRİ, WITH THE RESPONSIBILITY ENTRUSTED TO ME BY OUR NATION...

This long-suffering nation is not condemned to what is being done to it. Poverty is not, and cannot be, this nation's fate. Our nation, possessing an immense human resource and a productive, fertile, and effective geography, has the strength — with its determination and industriousness — to shatter the wall of poverty to which it has been condemned.

We are aware that we bear great responsibilities in this broken order that normalises poverty, far from justice and democracy, and in the crisis being inflicted upon us. The "Istanbul Model" has become the name for the totality of actions that this sense of responsibility has produced. We turned Istanbul into a city of solidarity, development, prosperity, and abundance free from waste. From city restaurants to cash support, from free milk support to nurseries, from the Askıda Fatura (Suspended Bill) scheme to market support for retirees, from scholarships and dormitories for youth to free transport support for mothers — Istanbul has become a city of solidarity. We brought the fair sharing of prosperity to every corner of the city, from squares to parks, from cultural heritage to urban and life forests. Today, our country's greatest need is solidarity, development, and prosperity. Now is the time to build our Turkey model. With our populist and action-oriented spirit, I am working on these matters in detail from my cell in Silivri, with full awareness of the responsibility entrusted to me by our nation.

We are preparing a comprehensive strategy aimed at achieving industry-based sustainable growth, raising our international competitiveness — driven by our national industrial policies — and bringing our technology capacity, the most pioneering field of the current century, to a highly effective level that competes with the world. Together with all our economic stakeholders, through councils that will be established with collective wisdom and will operate actively and effectively, we are reshaping industrial policy and all our production and development efforts — not merely as a tool to increase the rate of growth and close the gap with wealthy nations in leaps, but also as a tool to determine the direction and inclusiveness of growth. In this process, we are also developing employment policies that will resolve unemployment, which has now become a structural problem.

What we have experienced under this government shows that the Central Bank must be independent. In this way, monetary policies can be developed without deviating from the goal of achieving and maintaining price stability. Resources can be used not for the ambitions of those in power who are preoccupied with protecting their seats, but for productive investments in line with the competitive criteria of the new era. The incentive system must also be redesigned according to the new competitive environment. It must move away from its sector-focused structure and be replaced by an approach that encompasses all firms reaching multi-dimensional standards in line with rational and strategic objectives. In this way, we will both increase our productivity and direct investors toward sectors that promise hope.

All of this will have conditions and principles. Most importantly, it is to fight poverty, improve the living conditions of the middle class and working people, and eliminate income inequality. The nation cannot shrink while Turkey grows. Our most important duty is to establish a fair order in which everyone receives their share of growth.

We need to launch a mobilisation for change in order to increase our economic resilience and durability, which have been sacrificed to the government's ambitions. We must align industrial and technology policies with the fight against climate change, and reverse Turkey's economy's 25-year process of "premature deindustrialisation." It is also a necessity to restructure all sectors and the use of public resources in the transformation process of our country, our region, and the world. This production mobilisation — particularly through new logistics routes focused on trade corridors, new industrial cities, new production zones, new trade zones, and infrastructure investments — will carry our country into the future and make it competitive with the world.

"POVERTY MUST NOT BE MADE SUSTAINABLE — IT MUST BE OVERCOME"

The government fails to listen to and understand its own nation, just as it fails to comprehend the great transformation the world is going through. The great trade war that has begun between America and China has many fronts. But the heart of the war concerns the redistribution of cards in the field of technology and production. In the geopolitical and geostrategic arena of this war, there are topics such as artificial intelligence, energy transitions, quantum computing, communications, trade routes, and the digitalisation of sectors. All of this shows us that developed countries are preparing for what may be the greatest leap in human history. Human history has passed through many such leaps. The cost of falling behind on leaps such as the invention of the steam engine, the electric motor, the industrial revolution, the internet, and the information age has been heavy for our nation. The gap between us and developed countries in terms of national income has grown to sixfold. If we miss the train on this greatest leap in human history, the distance between us could turn into an unbridgeable chasm. This is a great threat to our nation and our state, one we are obliged to recognise.

The necessary direction our country must advance in is clear: we will produce. In a world where the mode of production is being transformed by rapidly advancing technology and where digitalisation in production is now a necessity, we must produce in order to survive. In this period when tensions, conflicts, and wars are increasing in world politics, new alliances and partnerships are being formed, and tendencies toward inward-looking policies are multiplying, we must produce in order to make Turkey one of the leading countries. In this period when globalisation is weakening and bilateral partnerships and multipolarity are gaining importance, we have geopolitical advantages. The production mobilisation is well-suited to build on this advantage dynamic. However, the new competitive conditions emerging in the world require establishing data centres of sufficient scale and technological capacity, grounding this in a geographic strategy, and putting an end to the storage of the country's data in data centres abroad. In this way, we can raise our competitiveness across all fields and create a predictable and stable macroeconomic environment. Of course, it is a fact that such a production mobilisation requires a sound legal system, a just environment, and a climate with a solid democratic competitive foundation.

During this period of impoverishment we are going through, the importance of managing social assistance networks through municipalities has become apparent. It is clear that poverty must not be made sustainable — as this government has done — but must be overcome, reduced, and ended. To this end, while making quality basic education and public health services accessible to everyone, we must expand social support networks with income-guaranteed programmes for disadvantaged groups such as the elderly and the disabled. We must extend the social municipal governance we have achieved in local administrations in recent times to the entire country in the true sense of a social state understanding.

One of the important issues that has become invisible amid our country's great injustices and economic and democratic crises is food security. The time has come to regulate agricultural policies with food security at the centre. Farming has lost its appeal; the average age of the rural population engaged in production has approached 60. Strengthening agro-based industry, making farming an attractive and profitable profession, and making the food chain resilient through agricultural-industrial integration are necessities. Under this government, farming has been deliberately driven into a debt quagmire through political decisions and wrong strategies. Our need for emergency support plans and long-term planning is evident. The recent crises have made it even clearer that we must ease the burden on our farmers, develop ecological transition plans, and make the fight against climate change a driving force of agriculture. Those who have squandered our country's resources on the government's ambitions have once again left our farmers alone and helpless in the face of climate crises.

Ahead of us lies a difficult process that requires setting out without losing any time. Just as the whole world is experiencing, we too are entering a period of societal economic transformation. The burden of this process will be borne by new generations. The rising new generation has shown that it has the energy to carry both democracy and the economy on its shoulders. What falls to us is to free the education system from ideological disputes, to bring our youth to a level where they can compete with their peers around the world, to strengthen the curriculum for this purpose, to improve teacher quality, and to create an educational climate that allows everyone to send their children to state schools with peace of mind. Our country has squandered the last 45 years of its education system on ideological disputes and repeated system changes. The duty of our state is to equip every young person who has completed high school with the tools to compete with their global peers. To this end, we must ensure that every young person graduating from high school knows English as well as their international peers and possesses up-to-date technological skills. Our differences must be accepted not as something that divides young people, sets them against each other, and causes them to harbour resentment toward one another, but as our reality that enables us to be a society together in richness and cooperation. Our youth, rising to their feet, stand shoulder to shoulder and side by side with all their differences, giving us clues about a new life. Our greatest call is to our youth. You are the ones who will lift Turkey back on its feet. You will nurture hope; you will grow a Turkey that works, produces, earns, and shares. I have complete faith that you will make history in the second century of the Republic. Young people who have gone abroad for education, migration, or work — you too, prepare yourselves. As Atatürk said to the young people he sent to other countries for education when our Republic was being founded: "You will go as sparks and return as flames." We will prepare for our youth the infrastructure and strategic visionary roadmap they need in order to be the guarantee of our wealth in our future.

"WE HAVE DRAWN UP OUR PLANS FOR ALL OUR GOALS"

We have drawn up our plans for all our goals. With our economic programme, we will fundamentally transform the production structure and put a transparent and accountable approach into effect. In a very short period of time, we will set Turkey on the right course in this new era of the world, and with a strong, transparent, accountable, and meritocratic public order, we will channel our significant resources into the programmes I have mentioned. In our beloved homeland, for our 86 million people, it will no longer be poverty but prosperity that is spoken of.

I am addressing my beloved nation. Let us show the whole world that this nation's fate is not poverty, hopelessness, and helplessness. It is in our hands to develop our country in leaps, to make our state democratic and strong, and to make our nation prosperous. Our nation stands for this; it stands for justice, democracy, and receiving its share of prosperity. We will rescue this country from the poverty to which incompetent and ambitious people have condemned it. We will carry out the revolution of justice and democracy — we know that it is either Justice or Destitution. We will consign the current tyrannical order, the regime, the presidential system that has become a nightmare weighing on this nation and state, to the depths of history. We will deliver to our nation and our future the strongest democratic parliamentary system befitting our nation, the principle of separation of powers, and an accountable, transparent, and meritocratic public order.

We will work, we will produce, we will earn, and as a nation we will share with justice."