CHP CHAIRMAN AND NATION ALLIANCE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE KEMAL KILIÇDAROĞLU'S SPEECH AT THE 'Congress for Future's Economy' IN IZMIR

CHP Chairman and Nation Alliance Presidential Candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu:

- "A beautiful Turkey, a livable Turkey, a Turkey in peace, a Turkey that develops and grows, a Turkey that is respected in its region and the world, a Turkey that we all idealize."

- "I always commemorate Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk with two primary principles. The first one is political independence. The second one is economic independence. The main factor that ensures the sustainability of political independence is economic independence. "

- "I will talk about a four-pillared strategy. The first pillar is a strong democracy, a strong parliamentary system. The second pillar is a productive Turkey. The third pillar is the strong welfare state. Finally, the fourth pillar is sustainability."

Republican People's Party Chairman and Nation Alliance Presidential Candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu attended the 'Congress for Future's Economy' organized by Izmir Metropolitan Municipality.

The Congress for Future's Economy, organized by Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, continued on its fifth day. In addition, CHP Chairman and Presidential Candidate of the Nation Alliance Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, DEVA Party Chairman Ali Babacan, Democratic Party Chairman Gültekin Uysal, Future Party Chairman Ahmet Davutoğlu, Felicity Party Chairman Temel Karamollaoğlu and İYİ Party Vice Chairman Ümit Özlale participated in the "Nation Alliance Presidents Meeting" session organized today with the slogan "We are building the Turkey of the future".

In his speech at the event, CHP leader and Presidential Candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said:

"In the presence of all of you, I sincerely thank our Metropolitan Mayor for organizing such a meaningful meeting. We will build the second century together. Let nobody think that our job is straightforward. But in the congress of the first century, the leaders of that era also knew that their job was not easy. A beautiful Turkey, a livable Turkey, a peaceful Turkey, a developing and growing Turkey, a Turkey that is respected in its region and the world, a Turkey that is the ideal of all of us.

I am aware that we are going through difficult times. I always commemorate Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk with two primary principles. They are explained in many different ways. In my heart and soul, Gazi Mustafa Kemal has two primary principles. First, political independence. In his own words, he says 'Freedom and independence are my characters'. I like to live freely under my flag. The second principle is economic independence. At the congress held in Izmir a century ago, Gazi Mustafa Kemal said: 'No matter how great political and military victories are, if they are not crowned with economic achievements, the successes achieved cannot last, they will soon fade away. The main element that ensures the permanence of political independence is economic independence. We know that we have suffered great difficulties until today. We know that from time to time, significant crises occur within a hundred years. But let's build a system and order so that no matter who comes to power, Turkey will never have to face such crises again.

I will talk about a four-pillar strategy. The first pillar is a strong democracy, a strong parliamentary system. Democracy lies at the core of the basic philosophy that brought the six leaders together. No country has ever developed without democracy. Therefore, when you look around the world, all countries with the largest per capita income have a strong understanding and tradition of democracy. We also have to strengthen our democracy. We have to bring the separation of powers. We have to make the legislature, the judiciary and the judiciary into healthy functioning powers that control each other. In any healthy functioning democracy, there is no uncontrolled area. Every sphere must be supervised. The Grand National Assembly of Turkey? It is also supervised. By whom? The Constitutional Court. If you have made a mistake in law, you can go to the Constitutional Court, and the Constitutional Court will say to the Parliament, 'You made a mistake; please correct your mistake,' and that mistake would be corrected.

A free media... Where there is no freedom, there is no democracy. Therefore, the media must also be independent. The groundwork for this must be provided unconditionally. The core of democracy is that every power must be auditable. There is no unchecked power in a democracy. This must be recognized and realized.

The political institutions must be held accountable. If those in power are not accountable to the people, there is a lack of democracy. The existence of democracy is the accountability of the taxes collected from the people to the people and ensuring transparency in the state. Therefore, when we switched to a strengthened parliamentary system and promised this, we said as the Nation Alliance, 'We will establish a National Tax Council.'

Let me rephrase we will establish a National Tax Council. Every year, the National Tax Council will convene and prepare a report on where the taxes collected from 85 million people are spent, published in the Official Gazette. Everyone in Turkey, from workers to pensioners, industrialists to tradespeople, will know where the taxes paid were spent. Six leaders committed to this, and we signed under it.

Another thing; in a healthy functioning democracy, the institution of politics should not be stained. We have put forward a will in this regard. Six leaders signed a pledge that we would enact a Political Ethics Law. If politics is conducted based on ethics, many problems will be solved by themselves. Because of the lack of a political ethics law, the trust between politics, politicians and the public has been shaken to a great extent; when we have such a law, we will have built a very different Turkey.

And, of course, the political institution, those in power, bring a budget to Parliament. In other words, they determine where the taxes they collect from the people, the borrowings they make, and the revenues they obtain through privatization are spent. Therefore, it is necessary to account for whether the money is spent healthily. To where? For this, the six leaders sat down, discussed and made another critical decision. We said that we would establish a Final Accounts Commission in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in addition to the Plan and Budget Commission. In other words, we would account for where the previous year's budget resources were spent. In addition, we did something else, a first in our history. The chairman of the Final Account Commission will be from the main opposition. In other words, those in power will give an account in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

What kind of a Turkey do we dream of; a beautiful Turkey where every penny spent is accounted for, the media is free and ethical, and decent politics prevail. There are other similar institutions to create all these institutions, but since time is limited to 15 minutes, let me cut the first pillar, democracy, here. There is the Court of Accounts, the reports of the Court of Accounts, which conducts audits on behalf of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, God willing, you will see that in our government, the reports will never be cut off, all of those reports will come to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

Our second goal, the second pillar, is a productive Turkey. Turkey needs to be effective. A Turkey that manufactures in every field. A Turkey that manufactures in all areas of life, from industry to agriculture, from culture to every aspect of life. A productive Turkey is a powerful Turkey. We have resources, a land, a homeland, fields, plains, mountains, and beautiful, hardworking people, but they are being cut off from production. Everyone will produce. Everyone will be an essential part of the production chain. A Turkey where everyone produces is a powerful Turkey. A Turkey where everyone produces is a Turkey that does not look to the outside world. A Turkey where everyone produces and earns means a Turkey with the power and capacity to provide all kinds of assistance to its neighbours when necessary. But in the 21st century, we have learned what and how to produce very well. Humanity discovered the wheel 1 million years; now, there are multiple innovations every second.

The economy of the 21st century is no longer agricultural or industrial; the economy of the 21st century is now a knowledge economy. Whichever country produces knowledge, that country grows and develops rapidly. Where will we produce knowledge? In universities. Therefore, in our government, the Nation Alliance's government, all kinds of ideas will be freely discussed in universities. No one will be expelled from university for thinking differently. Universities will be centres of knowledge, and universities will produce knowledge. The knowledge produced by universities will be transformed into tangible commodities by industrialists. A Turkey that produces knowledge produces technology and is not alienated from technology. Our goal is magnificent, and we will realize this goal.

Many people criticized my visit to MIT, the world's top university, for creating technology. We must bring to our country the professors who work at MIT, one of the essential technology-producing universities in the US and the world, who graduated from Turkish universities and who go and work there. They should work here, produce here, should display all their creative powers here. We will do these. In short, we have to make high-value-added products. A Turkey that cannot produce high-value-added products cannot develop, grow, prosper or have a position of influence. We have to build a Turkey that produces high-value-added products. The way to produce high-value-added products is for universities to create knowledge and for industrialists to transform this knowledge into commodities. Today we all use cell phones, none of which belong to Turkey. Countries with a knowledge economy produce them, and we are their market. I am telling you clearly and unambiguously; in the government of the Nation Alliance, you will see that we will not be a market for others; we will be a country that produces and exports goods to the world. Our commitment is powerful and forceful.

The 20th century was the petroleum century, and there were petroleum wars. The 21st century is the chip wars. Who will produce the chip? We know where the petroleum is, and we know how to extract it. But we decide where the chip will be produced; that is, people decide, that is, those who produce knowledge decide. The main goal of 21st-century Turkey is to become a country that produces chips in science, industry and technology. We will set the target high, and we will achieve that target. We have professors who generate knowledge. These professors are recruited from all over the world. Great prices are paid. But we cannot keep these people in our own country.

When I was a student, when I was studying at the Ankara Academy, there was Hamza Eroğlu's book on the History of the Revolution, and I will never forget an anecdote there; right after the Second World War, the American general told the German general the following: 'Germany has been destroyed, and you will never be able to turn your back on it again.' The German general's answer is historical. He said to the American general, 'Yes, Germany has fallen to the ground, but don't forget one thing, Germany's universities are still standing.' Yes, Germany today, the Germany that had fallen to the ground, has revealed itself as the strongest country in the European Union.

We all have to realize how valuable knowledge and knowledge production are.

Dear friends, our third pillar is to build a strong welfare state. If you cannot build a strong welfare state, you can produce as much as you want, but if you do not distribute it fairly, if one part of the society is poor and another part is wealthy, there will be no peace there, and there will be no prosperity there. Stability depends on the fair distribution of the resources created. In other words, we can rebuild a beautiful Turkey where no children go to bed hungry with the help of democracy and the welfare state. We have to build a state where no one feels under the shadow of the state, where no one feels insecure. In one of its decisions, the Constitutional Court defines the social state: 'A social state of law means a state obliged to ensure real equality, that is, social justice and social balance by protecting the weak against the strong.' Despite this Constitutional Court ruling today, Turkey's welfare state has suffered significant damage. Especially in the last five or six years, billions of dollars of resources have been transferred from lower-income groups to a handful of upper-income groups in Turkey. And a process of impoverishment has started at the grassroots. It will be up to the Nation Alliance and us to fix this, and we will do it. Convention No. 102, the Convention on Minimum Norms of Social Security, adopted by the International Labor Organization... Eight insurance branches were implemented and adopted in 1971 in Parliament on July 29, 1971. The ninth insurance branch needs to be implemented, implemented, or legislated; Family Support Insurance. God willing, we will do that, and every family and individual will definitely have security. And the welfare state will never publicize a person's poverty while providing aid. We will build a system worthy of human dignity while building the social state.

Our fourth pillar is sustainability. You have brought democracy, produced in Turkey, and built the welfare state, but the moment you stop, you go behind. The world is changing rapidly. There are outstanding changes in science and technology, and you have to keep up with these changes. The key to sustainability is merit in the state. In other words, we have people with experience in state administration. In other terms, the presence of knowledgeable, productive people in universities. In other words, we must decide whether to keep pace with change or lead it. We don't want to keep up with the change. They did it; let's do it too. No, let us do it and let them follow us. Therefore, we want to build a Turkey that pioneers change, transformation and breakthrough, a Turkey that leads not only in its region but also in the world if necessary.

Another important thing here is that the state has institutions, and each institution has its own culture. In history, those cultures have become too strong for heated politics to interfere. Central banks are like these ministries; they have their own cultures, and hot politics does not interfere with these cultures. Therefore, those cultures make the institution we call the state firm.

And more importantly, one of the keys to sustainability is education. Education needs to be open to innovation and foster a sense of curiosity. If we can foster a sense of curiosity, if we can foster a sense of interest from the moment a child starts school, and if children can question life, then Turkey will have paved the way for rapid growth and sustainability. Therefore, we will also make fundamental reforms in the education system. Areas where our children can research whatever they are curious about... Without blaming them, punishing them, or accusing them, without saying, 'why are you asking questions'... The more qualified they can ask, their education will be more valuable. This is one of the keys to sustainability, along with merit.

I want to end my speech here and thank you all from the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you. I extend my sincere greetings and respect to my honourable Presidents."