President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke at the 109th Term District Governor Course Draw Ceremony at the Presidential Complex.
'THE ELITIST MENTALITY THAT PLACED THE STATE AND THE NATION IN DIFFERENT POSITIONS...'
Highlights from Erdoğan's statements are as follows:
"Turkey is a state of law. Our civilization is a civilization of compassion. To the extent that we elevate justice, we elevate the state; to the extent that we treat with compassion, we strengthen the bond between our people and our state. We are a country that has experienced both experiences in its recent history. The elitist mentality that built walls between the state and the nation, and placed the state and the nation in different positions, has caused great harm to our country.
They tried to pit our people against each other by labeling them as reactionaries, religious, sectarians, secular or anti-secular. Millions of our citizens were marginalized just because they spoke their mother's language. Our democracy is paying the price. Our state and our nation have paid it. There is no place in our vision of the state for a bureaucratic oligarchy that looks down on its citizens and views a portion of the citizens as a source of threat. The state is at the service of its nation. A public official is also a servant of the nation."
WHAT HAD HAPPENED?
TBMM Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş, in his statement regarding the New Constitution, stated that the phrase "the indivisible integrity of the state with its country and nation" should be changed, saying, "The state does not have a country. The state does not have a nation. This text should be expressed as 'the indivisible integrity of the nation with its state and country.' I think it is important that this elitist understanding, this statist understanding, be reconsidered in the new constitution with a state understanding that rises on the power of the nation."
News Source: 12punto
