Parliament Speaker Kurtulmuş: As Turkey, we do not want more war in this region

The "ÖNDER Imam Hatip Alumni Association Traditional Iftar" program was held at the Bağcılar Kadir Topbaş Public Palace. The program was attended by Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş, Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin, AK Party Kayseri Deputy Hulusi Akar, and numerous guests.

Speaking at the program, Parliament Speaker Kurtulmuş said, "We carry the events of the February 28 process in our memories as if it were yesterday. February 28 was a breaking point in Turkish politics. Those who were uncomfortable with the state and the nation coming together saw it as taking away their rights to exist in society and in the public sphere. All doors have been opened to the victims of February 28. I heartfully thank everyone who contributed to this struggle. We have witnessed that all those who resisted during that process have been quite successful in their lives. Nothing remains of those who said February 28 would last a thousand years. Because this nation did not say yes to the tutelage-seekers, the tutelage-seekers were pushed aside. The order of tutelage has come to an end."

"We hope and wish for a return to the peace table"

Continuing his speech, Kurtulmuş said, "Unfortunately, the world has become a place where a rule-based system no longer exists, meaning that in the international arena, rules are not valid, and the word of the powerful is what matters and the powerful call the shots. To put it bluntly, instead of a rule-based world system, a world order where the law of the jungle applies has begun to be established. It is impossible to accept this. It is absolutely unacceptable for anyone to take a place in the world system, struggle, and implement practices with such an arrogant attitude against those they see as rivals, enemies, weaker than themselves, or even those they deem necessary to discipline. It is crystal clear that those who talk about democracy when it is their turn to speak, those who talk about the sovereign equality of states when it is their turn to speak, and those who talk about human rights when it is their turn to speak, do not respect any of these values, have trampled these values, and do not care about them at all. One of the most concrete examples of this is Israel's practices, in addition to the genocide it has been continuing in Gaza for nearly three years, which show that it will no longer recognize the rights of any Palestinian in the West Bank. A law passed in Israel on February 15, 2026, which allows for the seizure of the properties of people in the West Bank and paves the way for this, and the fact that the world system remains a spectator to this, is sufficient in itself to show that the law of the jungle is now in effect. A while ago, a head of state being taken from his bed in the middle of the night with his wife and taken to another country and imprisoned is a clear expression that the law of the jungle has begun to prevail. Again, the airstrikes launched today by Israeli and American forces against Iran, a sovereign state, are an approach that once again declares to our faces that the rule-based system has disappeared. Such a thing cannot be. Those who have the most nuclear weapons in the world declare war on a country because it has nuclear weapons. Israel, which commits the most human rights violations in the world, can wage war against any other country because it claims they are committing human rights violations. Similarly, the countries with the most armaments in the world try to threaten other countries for arming themselves. This is unacceptable, incomprehensible, and a situation that the conscience of humanity will never accept," he said.

"We hope and wish that this decision for an attack is definitely withdrawn and that there is a return to the peace table"

Stating that "A new war breaking out in our region, where there is already enough war, is not in the favor or interest of any of the peoples of the region," Kurtulmuş noted the following:

"For this reason, as Turkey, from the very beginning, we have expressed, especially by our President, on every occasion that there is no other way to resolve this issue between Iran, America, and Israel, especially the issue between Iran and America, than through negotiation. Moreover, launching such an attack during a process where negotiations are ongoing and it has been announced that negotiations will continue in the coming days is absolutely not right, it is unacceptable, and it is an extremely important step that will open the door to new conflicts and new fractures in the world, rather than contributing to world peace. As Turkey, we say that there may be very different opinions between countries, and the interests of countries may be diametrically opposed. However, the path that is much easier than war is to negotiate at the peace table. Through negotiation, the conflict between countries can be ended and a certain point can be reached. As Turkey, we do not want more war in this region. There will be no winner in this war. We hope and wish that this decision for an attack is definitely withdrawn and that there is a return to the peace table."

Parliament Speaker Kurtulmuş said, "These developments show us, as Turkey, that we have always stood by peace, well-being, and brotherhood in our region. We live in the most difficult geography in the world. To survive in this geography, to maintain your existence strongly in any way, you must stand on firm ground. You must be strong and you must be an extremely capable country in every field. This is the path we have drawn for ourselves as Turkey. While struggling to eliminate all these conflicts around us, we are aware of the existence of those who have designs against Turkey, and we understand very well that we have no other way but a strong and great Turkey," he said.

"What kind of regime crisis can you extract from our children who are doing Ramadan decorations?"

Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin also said regarding the February 28 process, "This date tells a lot to anyone with a memory. When we look at this picture before us with this memory, we can see much more clearly which mentality codes the language used, the threat sentences established, and the removal of the religious from the public sphere are fed by. The wound left by February 28 was an experience of siege that went down to the daily life of the individual. As you know, the pressure in that process had spread to the school gate, the campus corridor, the teachers' room, and the families' domestic decisions. Our veiled girls, our Imam Hatip youth, and our religious working-class families all bore the burden of this intervention heavily together. One of the truths that February 28 made us pay a heavy price for was that tutelage did not always come with the sound of tanks. Sometimes it operated with newspaper headlines, sometimes with declarations, and sometimes with the pressure built on the values of society under the guise of an organized consensus. Indeed, the mainstream media language of the period, the civil-looking pressure groups, and those consensuses that narrowed the field of fundamental rights and freedoms were the main carriers of these interventions. Today, when we look at the reactions rising around Ramadan events, we see that we are facing an updated version of the same siege language. In the face of this picture, we need to speak clearly without beating around the bush. When our children get to know Ramadan, learn the etiquette of fasting, wonder about the meaning of prayer, and meet the voice of their own civilization with hymns in the schoolyard, who and why are they going into an ideological alarm process? How did you lose your measure to the point of labeling our Ramadan events as 'Talibanization'? What kind of threat can you produce from a child learning about iftar, patience, charity, and respect? What kind of regime crisis can you extract from our children who are doing Ramadan decorations? Please tell me what legal order is harmed by the voices of children singing hymns even during recess. Those who talk about pedagogy, with what pedagogical measure can you exclude children's right to know their own culture? Those who talk about freedom, why do you resort to a prohibitive language when it comes to the nation's faith and the spiritual memory of this country? How do you justify yourselves in showing Ramadan joy in the schoolyard as reactionism, children's contact with values education as a threat, and the real bond the society has established with faith as a danger, while appearing as defenders of secularism?" he said.

"This nation does not have to feel embarrassed for defending its own faith"

Minister Tekin said, "The secularism declarations put back on stage today on the occasion of Ramadan events ignore this memory. They talk about the rights of the laborer and the democratic republic. Well, which conscience saw the workers' children turned away from the door on February 28, the teachers whose professional lives were taken away with disciplinary punishments, and the vocational high school youth who hit the coefficient wall as citizens of this country? In which labor struggle, in which democracy claim could those children find the solution to their own problems that day? They keep repeating the sentence 'Defending secularism is not a crime.' Of course, it is not. The problem is the mentality that uses this sentence as a shield for itself and rains insults on veiled women, on people with turbans and robes, and on an elected mayor just because she has a headscarf on her head and baggy trousers on her legs. The problem is not secularism; the problem is the obsessive, arrogant understanding of 'secularism.' Those who try to extract a regime crisis from children singing hymns during Ramadan are actually saying that this society's faith cannot be visible in the public sphere. This nation does not have to feel embarrassed in front of anyone for defending its own faith. Our objection is to the language of tutelage that makes the principle of secularism a pretext for attacking the nation's faith every time. Thank God, if we can stand tall against this tutelage language today, it has been possible with the AK Party governments, the reform policies that have changed the prohibitive mechanisms step by step through a long-standing struggle for democracy, and the unwavering leadership of our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is willing to pay the price," he said.

News Source: 12punto