CHP CHAIRPERSON AND NATION ALLIANCE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE KEMAL KILIÇDAROĞLU SPOKE AT THE "ÇANAKKALE NATION MEETING"

CHP Chairperson and Presidential Candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu:

- "I promise you, I will sell the 16 presidential planes and buy fire-fighting planes. We don't need such luxury. A president is modest, thinks of his people, and does not send money from Turkey to the Americans through his henchmen."

-" The gangs of five do not want me. The gangs of five would like to block me. The gangs of five say, "Oh, don't let it be Kılıçdaroğlu. My promise to you is that even if there are not gangs of five but gangs of five thousand, I will hold those who eat the rights of the servant to account. I will hold those who take the right of the poor and the destitute to account. So let those gangs of five be prepared. Let them be prepared. 'Sir, we sent our property, our assets, our money abroad; Kılıçdaroğlu cannot bring it back...' I will bring it back, get it back, bring that money back to the last penny, and give it to this nation."

- "Turkey is a rich country if you don't tie the state's resources to gangs of five. It is a richer country than you think. They couldn't finish the robberies anyway. I will end those robberies. So don't worry, and I will stop all of them."

CHP Chairperson and Nation Alliance Presidential Candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's speech at the Nation Meeting held in Çanakkale today is as follows:

"Thank you. It's raining a lovely rain. May it be fertile. I promise you, and I promise you, Çanakkale, we will come to power! I promise you Çanakkale, and I will bring peace to this country; I will bring peace, I promise you Çanakkale.

Thank you, youth. It's a beautiful atmosphere, and the rain is drizzling. It would be best if you stayed in the rain briefly. But I want you to know that we will indeed bring democracy to this country, that no children in this country will go to bed hungry, that we will indeed bring peace to this country, that we will indeed bring work and love to this country. No mom will wonder what to pack in her child's lunch box. At school, s/he will eat water, milk, and food and socialize with friends. No mother will ever think about sending her child to school.

Pensioners... Don't worry, my retired brothers and sisters. Since 2015, I have said, 'Pensioners should be given a salary bonus equal to the minimum wage on Ramadan and Eid al-Adha.' They didn't do it. They should have done it more effectively. You will see that next Eid al-Adha, the pension of the pensioners and the money that was not paid this time will be deposited in their bank accounts as 15 thousand liras. They say 'he can't do it', right? They say, 'you are abusing'. They need to find Mr. Kemal. When Mr. Kemal promises, he always does it. They asked where you find the money for the two salary bonuses. They had to give it. We will provide it. We will give pensioners the holiday bonuses they deserve. With his grandchildren and his children in peace, s/he will also receive their pension. I will not allow any family to have an income below the poverty line. Every family will have minimum income security. I promise you we will win. Yes, Çanakkale, I promise you we will win. We will win together, and we will succeed together.

Young people, your biggest complaint is influence, and your rights have been taken away. But I promise you that we will ensure merit in the state, abolish the oral exam, and assign you whatever you got from the KPSS. So dear young people, don't worry, you will have a job, you will have a job. We will make every effort for you to work. And I promise you, your dreams will be Mr. Kemal's goal.

Teachers are waiting for assignments, health professionals are waiting for assignments, and technical personnel are waiting for assignments. I will solve all of them. I have a promise; let me repeat it here, we will assign 100 thousand teachers in the 100th year of the Republic. We will reopen schools in all villages. I will bring teachers and students together as Ferhat and Shirin meet. Parents will only leave their town to send their children to a school in the city.

We also know how important agriculture is. We have to eat at least twice, three times every day. They should be ashamed if you buy wheat from abroad, barley from abroad, oats from abroad, feed from abroad, or fertilizer from abroad. We will produce all of it in Turkey. We will not let any farmer or producer return to the fields and the soil.

You have just listened to two of our mayors. One is Mr. Mansur Yavaş, the mayor of Ankara, and the other is Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Europe's largest metropolis. We started our journey together. You will see that when they become Vice presidents, they will show how to serve their cities and all municipalities without discrimination. We are together; we are united, and we will fight together. Fighting together means strength, power, and a strong expression of will. I want you to be sure of this.

Çanakkale... Listen here; listen to this episode well. We are in Çanakkale. I know, and you know how significant Çanakkale is in our history. Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the thousands of martyrs lying there made Gallipoli impassable. Çanakkale is also the forerunner of our National War of Independence. Gallipoli was a war where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk consolidated his leadership. And in 1915, they made Gallipoli impassable. Seven nations came, but not a single ship or enemy soldier could cross the Dardanelles. Three years later, in 1918, the same enemy ships crossed the Dardanelles without firing a single bullet and anchored at Dolmabahçe. I told you this to let you know what the power given to one man, person, and human being will lead the country to. You will fight the National War of Independence; you will fight the first struggle with Çanakkale as the foreword. Thousands of our sons and daughters are lying there, embracing each other. No one knows what discrimination is, and they are lying arm in arm-and struggling. But one person came out and said, 'I signed the treaty, and you can all cross Çanakkale and come and occupy Istanbul,' and they came and occupied Istanbul. That is why we are against the one-person rule, and we are against the one-person regime for the interests of this country. A country that fought the War of Independence cannot be handed over to one person. That is why we are against it.

One more thing. From time to time, they accuse us, don't they? 'Wow terrorists, wow this, wow that, wow these, etc. etc. etc.' Let everyone know this very well. CHP has two red lines; our national flag and our homeland. But they, the one-man rule, I know very well what they are doing. Look, young people, listen here. They kidnapped the Tomb of Suleiman Shah. This is the Tomb of Suleiman Shah, located within Syrian borders. They escaped from the terrorist organization, took down our flag and abandoned their homeland. Those who do this can never, ever be nationalists. Those who do this can never be patriots. I have a promise to this nation. God willing, when we come to power with your votes, you will see, we will take the Tomb of Suleyman Shah back to the homeland, and we will raise our flag there. Our nationalism is not in words like theirs. If they want to learn about our nationalism, they should look at the late Ecevit. Everyone already knows how our nationalism is in the Mediterranean and the Beşparmak Mountains.

One more thing. Our army is the only army in the world without hospitals. They took away their hospitals. If an army doesn't have a hospital, there is a severe problem. They took away GATA, and they closed military hospitals. One week, in one week... You will see, within a week, we will open GATA and military hospitals. We will hand them over to our glorious army. We are not like them. We know how valuable our army is in this geography. I know very well what they are doing, and I know very well who they serve. But don't worry, but never, ever think about whether or not you will go to the polls on the 14th of the month. Go to the polls, vote and defend your vote. Be sure of one thing; we will take care of all the ballot boxes, don't worry.

Young people and women working in rural areas. They should remember that we, as the state, will pay their social security premiums. So, if you work on the land and produce, you will earn. If you win, Turkey will win; if you win, we will not import wheat; we will give you the money, you will win, and you will produce. We will pay your social security premium as the state. Therefore, we will bring a new climate to this country. The characteristic of a new environment is that we will greet the people we meet on the street, even if we don't know them. We will embrace. We are not differentiated; we will not discriminate. They are trying to separate us, and we will not separate. They create duality, and we will be one. Under our flag, in our homeland, we will be one; we will be together. No matter what they say, no matter what they do. Look, they still need to say what they will do. We know what we will do. We know what we will do and how we will do it.

One more thing. There is climate change. As you know, severe forest fires can break out in the whole Mediterranean basin in the summer months. And for this, we need aeroplanes to extinguish the fires. We also know that the Turkish Aeronautical Organization needs to do this more. I promise you, Çanakkale, I promise that I will sell 16 presidential aeroplanes and buy fire-fighting planes. We don't need such luxury. A president is modest. A president thinks about his people. A president does not send money from Turkey to the Americans through his accomplices. Let me say this in passing, let me open a parenthesis; I will bring all the money they send to America and England and give it to this nation.

The gang of five don't want me. The gangs of five want to block me. The gangs of five say, "Oh, don't let it be Kılıçdaroğlu. My promise to you, my promise to Çanakkale, even if there are not gangs of five, but gangs of five thousand, I will hold those who violate the rights of the people to account; no one should worry. Those gangs of five should be prepared. 'Sir, we sent our property, assets and money abroad; Kılıçdaroğlu cannot bring them back...' I will bring them back, I will bring them back, I will get them back to the last penny, and I will give them to this nation.

Therefore, dear Çanakkale residents, I ask you. They say, 'Sir, how should we work?' It is straightforward. Suppose you can convince a citizen who voted for the AK Party or other parties in the past without offending or hurting anyone. The country is in this state, and it needs to be fixed. We started questioning each other's identities, and asking each other's beliefs; we started challenging each other's lifestyles. This doesn't seem right; everyone's beliefs and identities should be respected. We need to respect everyone. We come from a tradition that says that a neighbour needs a neighbour's help. Now they have turned neighbour against neighbor. I will reconcile them. 'Neighbor needs neighbour's help', yes. Neighbour has to get along well, yes. Therefore, we will do all these things. Therefore, your task is to convince people, bring them to the polls and make them vote. Consequently, you will have done the most outstanding work when you do this.

Our mayors have achieved great success; they are working. A lot has been rumoured about them too. They said social aids would be withheld, but they were not withheld. They are saying again, don't vote for Kılıçdaroğlu; if he comes, social aids will be stopped. No, sir, the sources for the gang of five will be cut and social aids will continue. You will give the state's money, the money of the poor, the destitute, they will siphon it, and Mr. Kemal will watch. No way! Mr. Kemal will be wherever the right and justice are, don't worry.

The arrival of rights, law and justice depends on us. If we work, these things will happen. We work 24 hours a day. Six leaders are together. Therefore, we will fight together. Turkey needs a new breakthrough. Turkey needs growth. Turkey needs development. Turkey needs to produce products with high added value. I am not only promising these things. We will bring back all those who took bribes, participated in monetary transactions, and were appointed ambassadors abroad. For God's sake, can a bribe-taker become an ambassador?

Look, one more thing. We will bring the law on political ethics to parliament within the first week. There won't be any deputies who follow business, who take the money. We will close that book entirely. That's why they don't want Mr. Kemal. He will come and cut our hoses. Don't worry, and I will shut the hose of whoever is tying a hose to the pockets of the people.

Lastly, let me also say this. Çanakkale is actually one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It is wonderful. You have the Ida Mountains, which are breathtaking. It is a wonder of nature. When you look at it from a historical perspective, it is possible to see all those beauties there. The people of Çanakkale are hardworking and devoted. They really put in the labor.

Lastly, let me also say this. Çanakkale is actually one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It is stunning. You have the Ida Mountains, magnificent. It is a wonder of nature. Looking at it from a historical perspective, it is possible to see all those beauties there. The people of Çanakkale are hardworking and devoted. They really put in the labour. They don't get enough in return for their labour. But it has to be there, and it has to be given to him. The effort for the political establishment to decide how valuable it is, but for all of us to decide conscientiously. Effort and labour are priceless. It is necessary to earn money by working, not making money out of the air. Our young children are looking for their future abroad. They wonder if they can have a better standard of living if they go abroad. Now think, why do young people want to go overseas? I have researched. With this minimum wage, young people say they can neither own a house nor a car. But don't worry, when the government changes, you will see that your wages will be high, you will earn a good income, and you will own a car in a short time and a house in a certain period. You will work in your own country, produce in your own country, and earn in your own country. And Turkey will become a country that competes with the world, I promise.

We will become a country that competes with the world, not following someone else. We will turn the basin from Samandağ to Mersin into the most prominent production centre in the Mediterranean. High-value-added products will be produced there. Istanbul's population will decrease by 2.5 million in 5 years because people will come to these regions. We will create special economic zones for agriculture and animal husbandry, especially in Erzurum. You will see that we know all the problems of Turkey; we know them all, and we will solve them all. We know, we have experience, we have power, and we get power from you, not from others. The power is the people, it is you.

Again, you came all the way here, and you listened to us. A banner here says, 'Promise me to protect Mount Ida'. We will protect not only Mount Ida but all the beauties of this country. We will not destroy nature. We will never, ever allow nature to be destroyed. If there is justice, it should be justice for humans and all living creatures created by the Almighty Creator. The wolf and the bird also had rights. Therefore, this is how we think of justice and we will ensure fairness.

¬I know the problems of non-commissioned officers; I know the problems of our police friends. I know how much trouble they are going through.

I told the EYT people they finally delivered the rights the EYT people. What were they saying? They said it couldn't be and we couldn't give it. So Mr. Kemal knows it all; he knows which problem will be solved and when. Turkey is a rich country if you don't tie the state's hoses to gangs of five. It is a more prosperous country than you think. They couldn't finish the robberies anyway. I will end those robberies. Don't worry, and I will cut them all off.

I extend my sincere love and respect to all of you. I say goodbye. Don't worry, and don't neglect to go to the polls. Go to the polls, and cast your vote. We will change the destiny of Turkey.

My retired brother, they are giving you a raise. Have they just come to their senses? No, they are not. They are doing it to get your vote. But the 50 lira raise they give you, the increase they give to tomatoes and the market is more than your salary. That's why you can't make a living. We will solve it. Your pension was much higher than the minimum wage; it has fallen below it.

Young people, don't worry! We are coming; we will come together, together!

I extend my love and respect to all of you; thank you, thank you."

***CHP leader and Presidential Candidate Kılıçdaroğlu then cut the opening ribbon of Çanakkale Municipality Service Building.