CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu Speaks at the CHP Group Meeting at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (February 28, 2023)

Republican People's Party Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu made the following remarks in his speech at the CHP Group Meeting in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

- "On the day of a disaster, amid a catastrophe, how can an institution that is as old as the Republic, the Red Crescent, one of the most valuable institutions of the Republic, sell tents, trade tents? Therefore, I am addressing the Red Crescent officials from here: Brothers and sisters, how many tents do you have in your storage? If you have any left, bring them to us, and we will buy them all and send them to the earthquake zone. We will take them all... "

- "This government is buried under the rubble. They say that their predictions about the earthquake were wrong. What was that? They were waiting for an earthquake in Istanbul, but it turned out to be centred in Kahramanmaraş. My dear friends, this is the first time in my life that I have seen such a government that is far from the state tradition, far from the state discourse and does not recognize the very concept of the state. The state is the institution that prepares in advance for all risks. That is why we say merit is the foundation of the state."

- "The pillar of the state is justice; they rotted justice, nothing is left. If you cut the pillars of the state, you will be doomed to a situation like in Kahramanmaraş, Adıyaman, and Hatay. They cut the pillars of the state; they put the most competent people in front of the door; they based the state not on merit but on loyalty; they condemned opposing opinions; they closed their ears to different opinions."

- "The state also cooperates, state institutions collaborate, voluntary citizens participate, there is coordination when you give proper orders, everything falls into place. 'Sir, we didn't do anything for two days; I want my permissible..' There shall not be any forgiveness for harming your people. You did it, and you did this with a purpose."

- "You caused the death of nearly 50 thousand of our citizens. What is more painful is that most of them froze to death. We have strong armed forces, the biggest power in the region; there is nowhere in the geography of Turkey that they cannot reach within 6 hours at the latest when you did not take necessary actions. Arctic tents against the cold, field hospitals, field kitchens; they could have done everything within the first 6 hours at the latest. They didn't; they waited for people to die. They saw death in plain sight, in shouting."

- "They eviscerated and rotted all the institutions established by the Republic. Do you want to take revenge on the Republic? Do you want to destroy the institutions of the Republic? Let me tell you frankly; neither you nor all the entities you rely on can afford it."

- "There are still people trapped under the rubble; the rubble has still not been completely removed. Nearly 50 thousand of our people died, old, young, and children; some families were destroyed. How much of this responsibility does the political power feel in its soul? Nearly 50 thousand people have lost their lives, for God's sake, not one person has resigned saying 'I am responsible for this'."

- "As the Nation Alliance, we will solve these problems. As the Nation Alliance, we will solve these problems with reason, knowledge, experience, justice and merit. This is the basic philosophy of our joint consensus text; we will rebuild the state and those broken pillars. We will strengthen the institution we call justice, and no judge will sit at the sultan's table; he will decide with justice alone with his conscience."