President Erdoğan announces 1-day national mourning!

The Cabinet Meeting chaired by AKP President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has concluded.

The meeting, which was closed to the press, lasted approximately 3 hours.

Here are the highlights from Erdoğan's speech following the meeting:

"We have been able to reach these days with difficulty using the 1982 Constitution, which has turned into a patchwork quilt. I express with sadness that we welcomed and spent the 100th anniversary of our Republic with a coup constitution.

I have previously brought up that this is a deficiency on behalf of Turkish politics. We are faced with a constitution that has lost its coherence and integrity, and which simultaneously bears the traces of advanced democracy and radical tutelage.

It is not just us who express this truth; legal experts also state it frequently. It is not possible for the current constitution to carry the new Turkey.

I believe that as 85 million people, we must turn the ideal of a new constitution into reality in the new century. We do not want this for ourselves; Turkey and our nation need it.

The political institution has the power and social representation to create a civil constitution. Turkish democracy must bring a new and civil constitution to our country.

The new constitution is not just a matter for politics. We desire for civil society, academia, bar associations, journalists, and all segments victimized by coups to also embrace the process."

"AKINCI TİHA TOOK AN ACTIVE ROLE IN IRAN"

"Undoubtedly, the defense industry is one of the areas where Turkey is writing history. While we were 80 percent dependent on foreign sources in 2002, today we meet almost all of our defense needs with domestic and national resources. Our defense exports, which were 1.2 billion dollars 10 years ago, increased 4.5 times to 5.5 billion dollars in 2023.

Last year, we exported 230 types of defense industry products to 185 countries. We are among the top three countries in the world in UAV technology. More than 50 countries from Africa to Europe use UAVs produced by Turkish companies. UAVs play a critical role not only in military fields but also in natural disasters and search and rescue operations.

The importance of UAVs was once again revealed in the helicopter crash where Iranian President Mr. Raisi and his accompanying delegation lost their lives. The Bayraktar Akıncı TİHA took an active role in search and rescue efforts upon the request of our Iranian brothers.

It conducted search and scanning activities in the region for 7.5 hours. After successfully completing its mission, it returned to our country. We know that our defense industry is frequently targeted by certain circles in our country. I thank our defense companies, who work with devotion, on behalf of my country and my nation."

"TURKEY DOES NOT LEAVE ANY HAND EXTENDED TO IT HANGING"

"The official visit of Greek Prime Minister Mr. Mitsotakis to our country was the latest indicator of our will to open a new page in our relations. We are pleased with the increase in our contacts with Greece within the framework of neighborhood law. We see that Mr. Mitsotakis shares the same feelings as us. The distance we have covered with Greece in a short time sets an example for other countries in our region. Turkey does not leave any hand extended to it hanging.

We once again demonstrated our will to develop our cooperation with Georgia during the visit of the Prime Minister and his delegation. We see more support from Georgia from now on in the fight against organized crime networks and FETÖ."

"THE IMPORTANCE OF OUR CALL FOR 3 CHILDREN IS BETTER UNDERSTOOD TODAY"

"TÜİK's 2023 birth statistics are worrying. Accordingly, the fertility rate, which was 2.38 in 2001, has fallen to 1.51 in 2023. In other words, we are below the 2.1 level, which is the population replacement threshold.

I say it clearly: this is an existential threat and a disaster for Turkey. We were constantly recommending 3 children because we saw this picture. Unfortunately, time has proven us right in our predictions. The importance of our call for at least 3 children is better understood today. Population is our greatest strength as a nation; we must protect it. We will be more determined on these issues in the coming period."

TARGETED EUROVISION

"Gender-neutralization policies are among the most obvious areas of global imposition. We witnessed the dire dimensions of this in the world at the Eurovision contest held last week. It is clear that the strange types presented to young people are the Trojan horses of social degeneration.

It is accepted by everyone that this is a conscious policy. We see how accurate a decision we made by keeping Turkey away from this disgrace for the last 10-12 years.

We see that one of the first actions of some local administrations that changed hands in our country with the March 31 elections is the promotion of alcohol consumption. While there are so many demands and expectations of the nation, I find these meetings worrying. The duty of municipalities is not to rent private planes to take journalists to a wine festival, but to keep our youth away from the scourge of alcohol. We are against any policy that threatens the family institution and the mental and physical health of the individual. We are continuing our work by planning every task that falls to us for the establishment of a strong family structure, step by step and individual by individual, with a sense of responsibility."

"THE IRANIAN PEOPLE ARE OUR BROTHERS"

"We are deeply saddened by the passing of my brother, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr. Ebrahim Raisi, and the members of his delegation. I pray for God's mercy upon all our brothers who lost their lives. During our cabinet meeting, I held a phone call with the acting President, Mr. Mohammad Mokhber. We expressed our condolences to them. Iran is our neighbor, and the Iranian people are our brothers. We have shared the same geography for centuries, and we work side by side in peace. We have always appreciated the strong support Iran has given to the Palestinian cause. We have been in close dialogue with Iran since the Astana process."

"WE DECIDED TO DECLARE A NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING"

"We fulfilled our neighborhood law by not participating in the unilateral sanctions applied against Iran. We hosted the late Raisi in Ankara on January 24 and moved our relations forward. After the helicopter crash, we contacted the Iranian authorities and mobilized all our resources to contribute to the search and rescue efforts. In our cabinet meeting, we decided to declare a 1-day national day of mourning in our country to share the deep pain experienced by the Iranian people. We say once again, condolences to our Iranian brothers."

News Source: 12punto