President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke at his party's 23rd anniversary event: Deputies who joined the AKP have been announced.

President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took the stage at his party's 23rd anniversary event.

Highlights from Erdoğan's statements are as follows:

Today we are happy and proud. As the AK Party family, we are excited. We are experiencing the joy of our 23rd year. Happy 23rd birthday to us. I would like to thank our founders, chairmen, ministers, deputies, board members, women's and youth branch presidents, Provincial General Assembly members, our members, and the many unsung heroes who have contributed to the AK Party reaching these days, who have carried the flag of service with honor for exactly 23 years.

Our dear nation deserves the greatest thanks. I thank every member of my nation who has embraced us with love since the moment we left Pınarhisar, and who has stood tall by my side in every election we have entered and every attack we have been subjected to. We feel fortunate to be a member of such a nation. We offer endless praise to our Lord.

GEZI EVENTS

Our nation saw itself in the AK Party years later. It saw cadres who were passionate about Turkey. Just 14 months after our establishment, we took on the responsibility of governing the country with this noble spirit. We say that it does not suit us to get tired or give up when we are working with love. We have been faced with many insidious scenarios that wanted to prevent us from producing. We fought against many threats. They engaged in coup-mongering in the heart of Ankara. They wanted to put a mortgage on the will of the Parliament. In the Gezi events, they set our streets on fire using 3-5 trees as an excuse.

'IF THERE IS ANYONE WHO FEELS TIRED...'

We are conducting self-criticism with sincerity; we are addressing wherever we have shortcomings. We see our grand congress marathon not as a window dressing, but as the main foundation for the comprehensive change our nation expects from us. If there is anyone who feels tired, we ask them to step aside and catch their breath. None of my friends have the luxury of becoming complacent. We are the hope of this dear nation. It is unthinkable for the AK Party to miss the spirit of the new era. The place where the AK Party will conduct politics is the center of Turkey, just as it was yesterday, today, and will be tomorrow. While moving forward by renewing and refreshing ourselves, we will not allow anyone to be a hindrance to us. We maintain our will to meet with those who will support our struggle.

'WE, AS THE AK PARTY, WILL CONTINUE OUR CONCILIATORY ATTITUDE'

The allergies of a certain segment regarding issues like prayer and the Quran have been filed down. The fear that secularism is being lost and the country is slipping away has been replaced by self-confidence. We are in a better place in the fight against terrorism. By defeating those who looked down on the nation and those who saw the nation as 'the man who scratches his belly' in every election, we forced them to see the realities of Turkey.

The CHP, which has been the guardian of Jacobinism and tutelage for decades, is now having difficulty maintaining its old habits. It will make us the happiest if the CHP ends its fight with the nation. Our wish is for the CHP to make peace with the values of the nation, to submit to the national will, and to internalize democracy, that is, to normalize.

No matter what political view we hold, we are in the same boat. Opening new holes does not benefit anyone. As the AK Party and the People's Alliance, we will continue our conciliatory attitude. The purpose of politics is to find the good, the beautiful, and the right, and to strive to reach them.

For people to go into sharp divisions due to their clothing, sect, or ethnic origin is an open hostility to our nation. We will not show mercy to anyone who even thinks of attacking the call to prayer, the flag, the mosque, the Quran, or the mosque congregation. Let everyone know, we fought the War of Independence so that the call to prayer could be recited freely in these skies and our glorious flag could wave freely. Anyone who has a problem with the call to prayer, the flag, the mosque, or the congregation is not a child of this nation, they are an enemy of this nation, and we will not show the slightest tolerance for this mentality. We are not a party that will turn a blind eye to our youth being occupied by the plague of lumpen racism. We will act sensitively to protect them from dangerous movements with foreign roots. We look at racist attacks fed by Turkish and Muslim hostility with the same perspective as we look at LGBT perversion.

MAYORS AND DEPUTIES WHO JOINED THE AKP

The mayors who joined the AKP are as follows:

Adana Saimbeyli Mayor Mahmut Dal (Independent)

Adana Feke Mayor Cömert Özen (Resigned from YRP)

Elazığ Arıcak Bükardı Mayor Ali Açmaz (Independent), Açmaz had resigned from YRP on July 23.

Erzurum Aziziye Mayor Emrullah Akpunar (Resigned from YRP)

Erzurum Horasan Mayor Hayrettin Özdemir (Resigned from İYİ Party)

Erzurum Köprüköy Mayor Nevzat Karasu (Resigned from YRP)

Konya Doğanhisar Mayor Ali Öztoklu (Independent) Öztoklu also resigned from YRP.

Muş Bulanık Yoncalı Mayor Fehim Kaya (Resigned from YRP)

Muş Central Yeşilova Mayor Ömer Faruk Yenilmez (Resigned from YRP)

Ordu Çaybaşı Mayor Mesut Karayiğit (Resigned from YRP)

Samsun Ayvacık Mayor Refahattin Şencan (Resigned from YRP)

Şanlıurfa Birecik Mayor Mehmet Begit (Independent) Begit resigned from DEM Party.

Uşak Banaz Mayor Zafer Arpacı (Independent)

The deputies are as follows:

Istanbul Deputy Seyithan İzsiz and Istanbul Deputy Ersagun Yücel.