President Erdoğan: A new phase has been reached in a Turkey without terrorism

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made important statements at a program he attended in Istanbul.

Here are the highlights from the statements of AKP Chairman and President Erdoğan:

"I sincerely congratulate the Kanal 7 family, which has stood by the people and the truth since its establishment and has never compromised on its principles of ethical and responsible broadcasting.

WE ARE WITNESSING CHP POLITICIANS BECOMING ARROGANT

Those who did not live through those dark periods cannot fully grasp how the February 28 process, which marks its 28th anniversary today, established a regime of pressure, bullying, and persecution from education to politics, and from the media to the business world. In fact, whenever the issue of February 28 is brought up, we witness CHP politicians becoming so arrogant as to say, 'Has this victimization of yours not ended yet?'

THE WOUNDS OPENED BY FEBRUARY 28 HAVE NOT FULLY HEALED

The deep wounds that February 28 opened in Turkey's social and political life, especially in our democracy, have not yet fully healed. I advise those devoid of conscience who say 'you are exaggerating' to take a good look at these figures, which are only the tip of the iceberg. The number of teachers who underwent disciplinary investigations during the February 28 period due to their attire or profiling was around 33,500. More than 11,000 of them received penalties, and thousands resigned. Thousands of public officials working in other institutions were similarly investigated, exiled, forced to resign, or dismissed from their jobs.

IT HAS CAUSED A MASSIVE DESTRUCTION

Instead of pursuing criminals, law enforcement units were chasing our citizens with turbans, beards, robes, and headscarves in the heart of Istanbul. This country lived through, saw, and experienced in a very painful way the psychological torture chambers set up at university gates that they called 'persuasion rooms,' the coefficient application introduced to prevent Imam Hatip graduates from going to university, the injustices against vocational high schools that still cost our industrial sector dearly today, the imposition of 8 years of uninterrupted education brought in to close the middle school sections of Imam Hatips, and many other persecutions, acts of bullying, pressures, and bans that would take hours to list. February 28 caused massive destruction not only in rights and freedoms but also in the economy. You are responsible for these, CHP. You did these things.

Do you know what the cost of the February 28 postmodern coup is to our country's economy? It is 380 billion dollars. While the nation was becoming impoverished, the coup-cheering cartel media and elitist business circles of that period became even richer with cheap loans.

YOU GAVE A VOICE TO WOMEN WHOSE RIGHTS WERE USURPED

All those who poured gasoline on the fire through newspaper headlines and television screens gained huge economic benefits from the February 28 intervention. They received their reward for supporting the tutelage in the form of cheap loans, incentives, and privileges in abundance. My brothers and sisters, in such a hopeless period, Kanal 7 became the voice, breath, and conscience of this nation with its courageous stance. In the face of pressures, Kanal 7 undertook the duty of being the defense line for democracy and national will. As a politician who lived through those days to the marrow, I would like to say with pride once again today that you gave a voice to the women who were turned away from university gates and whose rights to education and work were usurped. For years, you brought to the agenda the injustices suffered by students whose futures were stolen by the coefficient inequality.

YOU DID NOT LEAVE US ALONE

In those days of shame when our children who left their schools to go to Friday prayers were portrayed as terrorists on screens, you taught the cartel media a lesson on how to do responsible and ethical journalism. You became the crying voice of the oppressed, not only in our country but wherever there was an oppressed person, from Palestine to Africa, from Asia to the Balkans, by making their cries heard, reporting on them, and carrying their cause to the screen. From the very first day, you did not leave us alone, just like many other names who were elected by the nation's vote and tried to serve the nation. You became a breakwater against global culture, the status quo, FETÖ, and the CHP mentality.

THE ERA HAS CHANGED BUT THE CHP HAS NOT

My dear friends, of course, we are all well aware of this truth, even if it is painful. Journalists in disguise who use their pages, accounts, columns, and pens for a fee exist today just as they did yesterday. Those whose only duty 25-30 years ago was to act as spokespeople for the tutelage powers are now busy from morning to night whitewashing the corruption, theft, and irregularities of the CHP, and the looting that wraps around its municipalities like ivy. They do not care about journalistic rules, professional ethics, or acting honestly. They were against the truth and the national will in the past, and they are now. The era has changed, but the mission and mentality of the media organizations affiliated with the CHP have not. In fact, I say this with sadness, the aforementioned media has become even more 'troll-like' in terms of style, level, quality, and broadcasting line.

The biggest difference between the past and the present is that these tutelage apparatuses no longer hold the key positions in the mainstream media. As all forms and manifestations of tutelage have receded in Turkey, the monolithic understanding that held our press and broadcasting life captive for many years with its purely ideological solidarity has, thank God, also lost ground. The era of the self-proclaimed columnists who insulted the public, threatened politicians, and disparaged the nation's beliefs and cultural values in the country's high-circulation newspapers has also come to an end over time.

A NEW PHASE HAS NOW BEEN REACHED

A new phase has now been reached. Terrorism has been an obstacle before our country for 40 years. We have a historic step, an opportunity before us. The disruption of imperialism's insidious and dirty game in this geography will be written to the credit of not only our country but our entire region. It has made the new path entered into much more meaningful and much more important. No member of this nation, whether Turk or Kurd, will forgive anyone who leads the process into a dead end with ambiguous rhetoric. We believe that conducting this critical period with calmness, cool-headedness, and sincerity is the most accurate decision. There will be those who do not want this problem to end permanently and definitively. We will exercise the highest level of vigilance against all kinds of provocations and take all necessary precautions."

News Source: 12punto