CHP Leader and Presidential Candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in Kars: "We will put an end to the trustee practice"

CHP Chairperson and Presidential Candidate of the Nation Alliance Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said, "We will bring democracy to this country, to every land of this country, including Kars. We will bring freedom of expression, we will bring peace, we will bring peace, and most importantly, we will put an end to the trustee practice, which is the biggest obstacle to democracy."

CHP Chairperson and Presidential Candidate of the Nation Alliance Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu attended the Nation Meeting organised in Kars together with Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Yavaş.

CHP leader and Presidential Candidate Kılıçdaroğlu said the following in his speech here:

Thank you, thank you, thank you. He says, 'Will spring come to Kars?' Spring will come to Kars; spring will come to Turkey; spring will come to the world. We will bring spring for sure. I have accepted living together, living together, respecting each other, not marginalising anyone because of their identity, respecting everyone's beliefs, everyone's lifestyle, accepting people as human beings and serving them, and not discriminating against them as a fundamental principle, and I will fulfil this principle with justice. My promise to you is my promise.

Citizens from Sarıkamış Başköy sent greetings. They say, 'We greet you. We have a request from Kılıçdaroğlu. Can Kılıçdaroğlu do something about the lack of sewerage in our village?" I want you to be sure that when Kılıçdaroğlu promises, he will do it. I send my sincerest greetings and respect to my brothers from Başköy in your presence.

Sir, we are in Kars, the frontier city with a magnificent and glorious history, and I am in your presence. From this city of the border, I greet and respect all of Turkey. I believe in you wholeheartedly. We will change the destiny of Turkey and Kars together.

Look, has your income decreased compared to the last five years? Has the cost of living increased compared to the previous five years? You cannot go to the market; you need help. If they have not been able to solve our problems for five, ten, and 15 years, if they have made us almost enemies of each other, then there is only one thing we can do. Change. There is nothing as good as a change. Therefore, we will change the government. Our common duty is to bring a more moral, cleaner and more beautiful government.

Look, I said Kars has a glorious history. Kars has a young population, but Kars does not have a stadium. Why doesn't Kars have a proper stadium? Should it have one? It should. Should young people do sports here? Yes, they should do sports. Therefore, I would like to appeal to my young brothers and sisters. You should find a job, live in peace, and contribute to the growth and development of your city. I have a promise. We will declare Kars, Iğdır, and Ardahan, including Erzurum, a Special Economic Zone. In this region, you will see how development can happen, how production can happen, and how factories can produce. The needs of the Middle East and the Caucasus based on agricultural products are 25 billion dollars. The market in this field is 25 billion dollars. Therefore, you will see how this region can get a 25 billion dollar wealth share.

Privatisations have been made, some factories have closed down, and they think whether the sugar factory should be sold. Let me express that too. No factory will be sold, and I want you to know that.

Sir, we will declare Kars a Special Economic Zone. God willing, we will develop Kars and Ardahan and bring peace to this region. We will make this an area where everyone earns, produces, and works. We will make this region an important centre.

Dear young people, I know your problems very well; I know your troubles very well; I know that you take the exam, you win, and you are eliminated in the oral exam. I will stop that awkwardness. I promise you I will destroy that awkwardness. You will take the exam, you will win, there will be no oral exam, and you will be appointed.

We will ensure merit in the state and give the job to the competent. If you do this, you will make a state a state-like, grow a state, and bring justice to the state. We will also bring democracy to every corner of this country, including Kars. We will bring freedom of thought and expression, we will bring peace, we will bring peace, and most importantly, we will put an end to the practice of trusteeship, the biggest obstacle to democracy.

We were just in Ardahan with my friends. When I spoke in Ardahan, they asked me after the field, "How are you satisfied?" Some of my retired brothers and sisters said, "Kılıçdaroğlu came, it is excellent, but he never mentioned 15 thousand liras; I wonder if he gave up on that?" Would I give up? A promise that comes out of my mouth will be realised. My pensioners should not worry. My retired brothers and sisters, since 2015, have demanded and defended that all pensioners be paid at least the minimum wage as a monthly payment and bonus on the Ramadan Feast and the Feast of Sacrifice. They didn't give it; they gave it low. Now they say they gave a little less than the minimum wage; they say, 'We gave a raise to the pensioners'. Justice, justice! What does it mean for a person to retire, friends? When a person retires, it means that I have worked, produced, sweat, and paid my insurance premiums; now gives me a salary that I can live on humanely. This is pension. Now you don't provide the pensioner with this pension; you don't give him the retirement he deserves; there are great difficulties, at least on the Ramadan Feast, on the Feast of Sacrifice, his grandchildren will come, his children will come, his children will come and kiss his hands, so at least give him a bonus of one minimum wage. They didn't. They didn't give it now, either.

You will go to the polls on the 14th, cast your vote, and bring democracy. You will elect Mr Kemal as President. On the Feast of Sacrifice, you will go to the bank; you will see a bonus of 15 thousand liras in the bank. You will withdraw the money, and you will spend it on Eid. Who wins when you give money to pensioners? When you give money to pensioners, pensioners win; when you give money to pensioners, tradespeople win; when you give money to pensioners, tradespeople smile. Therefore, the face of the merchants will smile, and people will be at peace. People say that the state is my state and the state has taken care of me. It is said that I am getting the return of the premiums I paid. Therefore, we do not give money out of thin air. He has laboured for years to grow Turkey, to develop Turkey, and we deliver the right of his labour to him, and we do nothing else. If you provide everyone's rights and laws, then there is justice in this country. We will bring justice. We will bring justice to everyone.

My teacher, brothers and sisters, you are waiting for an assignment. You have studied and graduated from university, but you need to do more assignments. I have a promise for them, too; Mr Kemal has a promise: In the 100th year of the Republic, we will appoint 100 thousand teachers. We will open all village schools. There will be teachers in the villages, veterinarians in the villages, agricultural technicians and agricultural engineers, and naturally, there will be imams in the villages. Therefore, we will change the colour of the village; we will revise the atmosphere of the village. In the village, the veterinarian will serve the workers and producers if they are engaged in animal husbandry and will vaccinate the animals. If agriculture is involved, he will make soil analyses. Which crop should be planted, and how much income will be obtained from which crop? All these will be calculated. Therefore, we will build a beautiful Turkey where everyone wins, and no one loses.

You will not make the peasant, farmer and producer resent the land. If you make them resent the ground, you will buy it from outside. Look, they buy straw from abroad, meat from abroad, livestock from abroad, feed from abroad, medicine from abroad, beans from abroad, chickpeas, and lentils from abroad. I will end this era. They pay dollars there, while our people here, our children, go to bed hungry. We will change this picture. We will rebuild a productive Turkey, a growing Turkey, a strong Turkey, a Turkey where everyone wins. I promise this. We will win instead of the son of the hand. Instead of giving money to the son of the hand, we will provide it to our own people, don't worry.

When I say these things, they say, "Where will you get the money?" Turkey is a rich country. There is money for the gang of five but not for pensioners. When it comes to the gang of five, there are dollars and euros; when it comes to farmers and producers, they say, "There is no money; where will you get it?" I spent 27.5 years in the state. 27.5 years...

How to make a budget, how to save money, how to manage the economy... I have worked with many Prime Ministers for 27.5 years, and I have never seen anything like them. They sit in palaces and say that everyone is fed here, and then in Turkey. They are detached from the people, and they don't know anyway.

I know very well what I will do with those in the palace. We will retire them altogether. We will send them away together. Don't worry, and we will send them all together. Mr Kemal will go to Çankaya. And thanks to you, with your votes, he will go to Çankaya. We will govern the state like a humble person, without extravagance, without wasting money, without eating rights and laws, without doing injustice, without eating servant's rights. This is how the state will be glorified, and justice and morality will prevail.

Remember one more thing. I will fight against the five gangs, and I will fight against the drug barons, don't worry; I will fight against the drug barons who poison our young children.

We will expand border trade; we will develop border trade. They will win, and we will win. Turkey is a strong country; Turkey is a beautiful country. Look, Kars is the best example of this. We have brothers and sisters from many different identities. We all live in peace; we all live in beauty. We will spread this beauty throughout Turkey, and everyone in Turkey will live peacefully. Every mother and father will send their children to school with a smiling faces. I will never let any child go to bed hungry.

Dear mothers, I have a promise for you too. Remember, I commit you too. I have a golden promise for you. In the Family Support Insurance, we will open a bank account for every family with no income or below the minimum wage. The woman will go and withdraw her money from the bank; the left hand will not see what the right hand gives; she will take it in peace and provide food for her children.

Wherever there is a family doctor, there will also be a social worker. Nearly 20 thousand social service specialists will meet with these families in Turkey. Do they have income or not? Are they renting or not, how many children are going to school, and what is the condition of the children? If the family needs income, the state will be their guarantor and take them to the family and say, 'I will give you a package; you vote for me...' We do not accept this; our beliefs do not accept this, and the left hand will not see what the right hand gives. The social state will be guarantee all women with Family Support Insurance. When you send your children to school, you will not think about what to put in their lunch boxes. Because when your child goes to school, he/she will eat his/her water, milk and food at school with his/her peers, his/her stomach will be full, and he/she will come home in peace. Be sure of this.

As I said, these five gangs have much to suffer from me. So I'll take it all and give it to you, don't worry.

There are public platform engineers. Engineers working in the public sector. They also sent greetings. They said, 'Please let Kılıçdaroğlu say, the salary of the doctor has increased, the salary of the judge has increased, the salary of the prosecutor has increased, in the past we all used to get equal salaries, now our salaries are crawling on the ground. What will happen if you tell them? They will try to do it immediately...' They cannot do anything after this time. When Mr Kemal comes, he will take care of all of them, don't worry.

Be sure of this. I have nothing to do with money and stamps. The day I entered politics, I announced all my assets as this is what I have. My most significant characteristic is that I do not eat unjust labour and respect every person, whether they vote for me or not. Every person has a place above my head. And we are together as the Nation Alliance; go to the polls, cast your vote and let's change Turkey's destiny. Let's share Turkey's wealth fairly. What did the late Ecevit say? "Neither oppressor nor oppressed, a just and humane order". Yes, we will bring an order that is neither oppressor nor oppressed, human and just to our country. We will make this geography the most fertile geography of Turkey. For God's sake, I saw the plains on my way here, there are herds in those plains, but their numbers are very few. Those plains need to boil, animals need to graze on those plains, and breeders, workers and producers need to earn. And we should not require foreign aid. I promise to do all of this, I promise Kars, I promise, I will do all of it, all of it!

And one more thing. Look, the army is our army. They took away the hospitals of our military. I will give all of those hospitals back to our glorious army. Don't worry; we will give them back. We will reopen GATA.

Therefore, we will turn Turkey into a country that grows and develops in peace and tranquillity, where everyone gets their rights. A strong Turkey will be Turkey for all of us. At the same time, let me also express this. I want you to know that we will send our Syrian brothers and sisters to their own countries within two years at the latest, without racism; I underline it without racism.

I say thank you all, thank you all.

We will live together in peace and tranquillity. We will raise a Turkey where democracy and peace exist together. We will live together in harmony under our flag as brothers and sisters without discriminating against anyone, without questioning anyone's identity, no one's lifestyle, no one's beliefs. I promise you this. I promise you, Kars; I will do this.