KILIÇDAROĞLU: “I WOULD RATHER DIE STANDING THAN KNEEL BEFORE YOU TO LIVE”

CHP’s Leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said, “And now it is their end game. Assassination threats with guns… They are warning us for the last time in their wisdom. I am calling out to these gangs, to the mob and to paramilitary structures. You witless crooks, you fools, you buffoons, you jackals… You jackals, do you think you can scare me? I would rather die standing than kneel before you to live. If God allows and I live, I will continue to be your scariest nightmare. Your trolls cannot keep me from my path. You cannot stop me.” Kılıçdaroğlu also said, “I am entrusting this to my compatriots if something happens to me. You must collect those 418 billion dollars. That money is the future of our youth. That money belongs to the unborn babies of this country. That money belongs to this nation. You must collect each and every dime. You must collect that money for the 85 million people of this country. This is my will for you.”

CHP’s Chairperson Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu attended his party’s group meeting at the parliament. CHP Group Deputy Chairperson Engin Özkoç said, “We are on a journey towards hope. Our people hope for a Türkiye where poverty comes to an end and they can live in peace enjoying their freedoms. This hope now focuses on one address: Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.” Kılıçdaroğlu’s speech is below:

“EVERYONE NOW REALIZES THAT WE ARE FOLLOWING A SOLUTION-ORIENTED POLICY: Ateach meeting, we have citizens asking us to voice their demand. Our people are stricken with problems. Here is the first point: Everyone now realizes that we are following a solution-oriented policy. How do you solve the existing problems? Citizens say, ‘You voice our problem. You tell them the solution. The palace in power does not know what the solution is. You save us from this problem at least.’ We will save each and every citizen living in Türkiye from their problems. We will bring peace and justice to our lands. We will do it. We will do it.

WE DO NOT PRODUCE OUR SOLUTIONS BY MERELY SITTING AT OUR DESKS: No one should worry. Türkiye is a strong country. As long as we work together and you communicate your problems to us, we will take note of those problems. We come together with experts in their fields. We sit with them. We discuss at length how to solve those problems. We do not produce our solutions by merely sitting at our desks. We produce solutions based on data coming from the field, as well. Therefore, all of our solutions have their feet on the ground. We calculate both revenues and expenditures. We make plans to achieve what should be achieved and pay attention not to take wrong steps. We bring the problems to the table and produce solutions. What do the people expect? Citizens expect economic stability. Our economy is really unstable. No one knows how much they will have to pay for a certain product the next day. However, it is the most basic right of our citizens to expect price stability in the economy and a decent life with enough revenues to live on comfortably. But this right has been stolen away from our citizens.

You apply salary increases. But you increase the price of cheese, onions, meat much more. Thus, our people receive their salaries but before long, after only a week, they have to worry about how to make the ends meet when they buy groceries. Not just groceries. Home rental prices are too high. Everyone knows this very well now. Our children, our brilliant sons and daughters are unemployed. They are faced with serious problems too. I was in Denizli when a young woman approached me and said, ‘Could you please defend our rights too? I am an architect. I graduated from a faculty of architecture and I have been unemployed for years.’ Our mayor there said, ‘I may be able to solve your problem.’ She said, ‘Non. This is not my problem only. This is a common problem of all architects who graduated from a faculty of architecture. We are not looking for some individual solutions. This is a collective problem. This problem concerns all of us and it needs to be solved.’ I was deeply moved by the pain expressed by such a sensitive young woman. We know how hard parents work to send their children to school, to help them become architects. But that young woman asked us to address the problem of all unemployed architects rather than solving her own problem.

NO HOUSEHOLD WILL EVER SUFFER ELECTRICITY, NATURAL GAS OR WATER OUTAGES: Hundreds of thousands of people are faced with water, natural gas and electricity outages. I promise this to all of our citizens. No household with low income or no income will ever suffer electricity, natural gas or water outages. I want all our citizens to write this down somewhere. Thanks to the Family Support Insurance, no one will be freezing in the cold of winter. No one will be left with no water or electricity. We make this promise but those in power cannot. This is because the palace does not have any water, electricity or natural gas outage. They live a life of comfort there; they live in clover. But ordinary citizens have problems. We will solve them.

OUR CITIZENS WANT TO RECEIVE A RECOMPENSE FOR THEIR WORK. NOT STRING-PULLING: Our citizens want to receive a recompense for their work. They do not want string-pulling or discrimination. They want equality. They want rights. They want justice. They do not want nepotism. Today, you cannot get a job in a public institution unless you have someone to pull strings. This mindset has now penetrated into every segment of the society. It has become a basic rule. This is where the twenty-year rule of the party in power has brought us. We need to get Türkiye out of this spiral.

WE HAVE TO STOP THIS RIGHTS VIOLATION: Tobacco producers approached me when I was in Denizli. Enterprises sign contracts with them. Before tobacco is even planted. Contracts are signed but the section that should indicate the price for which the tobacco will be sold is blank. So, farmers plant and get indebted but when it comes to purchasing, the blank sections are filled and stamped with a very low price right away. Today, the cost of one kilogram of tobacco is 80 liras but buyers pay 55 liras. Farmers have a cost of 80 liras and want to sell for 100 liras, but buyers only pay 55 liras. This is a violation of their rights. We have to stop this rights violation. About the PIKTES project… I had raised the issue of teachers that teach Turkish to Syrian children. I had said that these teachers were contracted; that they worked for a year and got dismissed at the end of the year. The next year, they sign a new contract to be valid as of January 1. The purpose here is to avoid giving them severance pay. I had said, ‘A state does not pull scams. It looks after its citizens.’ After I said this, someone from the parliament sent me a letter. An interesting one. ‘I worked at the parliament for 16 years with contracts every year that started on January 1 and ended on December 31. I started working on January 1 every year and my employment was terminated on December 31 every year. I got retired but I could not get a dime in severance pay. You talked about the rights of people working within the scope of the PIKTES project, but the same rights are violated at the parliament as well,’ he explained. There are people who have been working at the parliament in the past 20 years. I am calling out to them: Don’t you worry. We are almost there. We will give you what is rightfully yours too.

THIS IS THE REAL MATTER OF SURVIVAL: There are complaints about refugees and asylum-seekers. I said this before: We will send them back to their country based on their own free will with cheerful ceremonies in two years at the most. However, those in power would like 3 million 600 thousand foreigners—according to official figures—to stay here. This is a very serious problem concerning the future of Türkiye. If you are talking about matters of survival, this is the real matter of survival. These people will increase in number and none of them will have social security. What will happen to these people? An administration that does not think about the future cannot be expected to run the country in a healthy way. I am asking all of our citizens: Who allowed 3 million 600 thousand Syrians to enter into the country? Who followed this flawed policy? If you complain about the foreigners, if you say they have stolen your jobs, then you will stamp the logo with six arrows on the voting paper with peace of mind when you go to the ballot box. You will see that all migrants and refugees will honorably return to their countries in two years at the latest.

YOUR CHILDREN WITH SMA WILL BE TREATED BY SSI: There are children with SMA. Whichever province I go, parents approach me. A social state looks after its children. It looks after the unemployed and the poor. Children with SMA need medication to get better. We have approximately 3 thousand children with SMA. The cost is 2 million 125 thousand dollars. Which parents can pay this? Which parents can have their child treated? I am also calling out to mothers who have children with SMA. We are almost there. Don’t you worry. Your children will be treated by the Social Security Institution. We will exert every effort so that they can live. A human being is more valuable than everything else. Blood tests should be run before marriage so that children are not born with SMA. This is now being practiced for the first time by the Mayor of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, Mansur Yavaş. Our wish is to generalize this in Türkiye.

WE WILL INCREASE THE NUMBER OF OFFICER TEOMANS: Our citizens want our borders to be protected. ‘Our borders are our honor,’ we said. Since our borders are not protected, the mob gets in. They square accounts and kill people. They are on the loose, wandering around freely. We know all this. We do not need Photo-novel Süleymans whose scandalous photos would make a good photo-novel… We need Officer Teomans. We need more of them. Photo-novel Süleyman opened up the borders and turned them into a frequent passing point but Officer Teoman rejected the bribe that was offered to him and did his job. No one should worry. We will increase the number of Officer Teomans.

WE WILL ASSIGN 100 THOUSAND TEACHERS ON THE 100^TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE REPUBLIC: All families complain about the education system, I know. A teacher waiting for assignment approached me in Denizli. He asked, ‘Will you be able to assign 100 thousand teachers in the 100^th anniversary of the Republic?’ I say, we will not only assign 100 thousand teachers, but also assign 100 thousand more once the rural schools are opened.

THE STATE WILL COVER SCHOOL MEALS: The state will entirely cover school meals. Children will not have to bring lunch boxes. When it is time for lunch break, children will eat their fill. This task will be done in cooperation with canteen keepers at schools. There will not be discrimination among substitute, contracted and permanent teachers. They will all be permanent.

WE WILL WEED OUT THE SERVANTS OF THE PALACE AMONG PUBLIC SERVANTS: Another important issue… People’s trust in the state is fading away. Drugs and drug lords are everywhere. All this profoundly damages people’s trust in the state. No one should worry; we will reestablish a system of merit to reinstate trust in the state. Governors and district governors will no longer serve the palace but the state. We wholeheartedly respect them if they serve the public. We will weed out the servants of the palace among public servants. Their place is not public offices.

WE WILL CALL BACK AMBASSADORS WHO ACCEPT BRIBERY: Speaking of merit… We will call back those ambassadors who accept bribery. Can a person who stoops so low as to accept a bribe be an ambassador? We will call them back.

WE WILL RECONSTRUCT THE STOCK MARKET: The stock market runs on a system of robbery. We will protect the owners of small savings. We will reconstruct the stock market too. We will boost the trust put in our institutions.

CORRUPTION WILL BE A HISTORY: We will claim the rights of the poor. I would like everyone to know that we will not keep silent when the poor are exploited. We will give an account of every dime that we collect from the citizens. We will definitely put an end to corruption. We will take the lead and establish a committee at the parliament for this. The Outright Account Committee. The Outright Account Committee will be chaired by the main opposition. We, as the political power, will go and account for every dime that we spend there. We will do this in great confidence. This is because when we are in power, corruption will be a history. This country will have a government that gives an account to its citizens for every dime.

SEASONAL WORKERS AT ÇAYKUR SHOULD BE GIVEN PERMANENT JOBS TOO: The parliament is considering a legislative proposal. It is about giving permanent jobs to contract workers. There are some missing points there. I receive many requests. So, I am asking this from our group deputy chairpersons and all our parliamentarians. There are seasonal workers at ÇAYKUR. They should be given permanent jobs too. This is our demand. The power would not even think of this, but we do.

I WILL STOP ILLEGAL ENTRY OF TEA INTO THE COUNTRY: I should also call out to my sisters and brothers from Rize. I already announced this in Rize; don’t think I have forgotten. I will stop illegal entry of tea into the country and burn all the illegally imported tea that we cease in the Rize square. The power has forgotten about it. But this brother of yours has not. I will do it. I will.

A SOCIAL STATE DOES NOT JUST TOSS PEOPLE OUT: There are some specialized noncoms working for Turkish Armed Forces. Specialized sergeants. They must be given permanent jobs too. Some of them had been working for years but were dismissed from their specialized duties because they were diabetic. Okey, we understand that the armed forces have to avoid this. But the state has to give them other duties. A social state does not just toss people out. We will solve this too.

WE WILL GIVE YOU ALL THESE PERMANENT JOBS: There is the mention of contract personnel in the Law on Public Economic Enterprises. They should be given permanent jobs too. You must definitely propose this to the parliament. There are also research fellows and scientists whom we need very much. They should also be given permanent jobs. They should not be tossed out. There are teachers who work in return for additional course fees under the Ministry of Family and Social Services. They should be given permanent jobs too. There are contract employees working at special budgeted administrations. They should be given permanent jobs too. Please explain this everywhere you go. We have asked for permanent employment. If they do not accept, not only our MPs but also our district and provincial heads, women and youth branch heads should explain this everywhere they go. That we asked for this, but they did not accept. Don’t you despair. We will come to power and give you all these permanent jobs. A state does not practice double standard.

THEY THINK THEY CAN THREATEN ME: You know, I participated in a TV program.Mr. Uğur Dündar invited me. He is a respectable doyen of journalism. I participated in his program. You all know what happened then. They think they can threaten me with an ad featuring armed people. The message in that image is clear. They say, ‘We will come for you.’ So, these gentlemen will come for me. My fellow citizens should listen to this very carefully now. I will explain this step by step. I want our citizens to understand what is happening.

THEY ARE JUST A PART OF A BIGGER PICTURE: These paramilitary scraps are just a part of a bigger picture. There is only one thing at the center of it all. Money. A lot of money. They yearn for more. That money that cannot quench their thirst is stolen from our people. There are some gangs of five that stole it. Don’t mind me when I say gang of five. It is only their code name. We realize that there are thousands of them.

UNDER THE RULE OF THIS POLITICAL POWER, GANGS, MAFIA SCRAPS AND DRUG LORDS STOLE 418 BILLION DOLLARS: I had my expert friends calculate every dime. How much money did this palace in power steal from the treasury? We had this calculated. 418 billion dollars. Under the rule of this political power, gangs, mafia scraps and drug lords stole 418 billion dollars. I went up and said this very clearly. ‘This is the figure that I will collect. Write this down. We will collect those 418 billion dollars from you when we come to power.’

THEY RESORTED TO ALL SORTS OF OPERATIONS: They first wanted to talk to me and have a deal. I shut the door in their face. Then they moved to the next stage. They brought some media outlets into this. They have mafia members, mafia scraps who got out of prison. They have media celebrities. They have some bought journalists. They have a command center to run the operation. There are also many people who seem to be on the opposition’s side but secretly work for them. Long story short, they have everything. They resorted to all sorts of operations. But there is something that they do not know or understand. Mr. Kemal can never ever be stopped on his path.

THEY ARE WARNING US FOR THE LAST TIME IN THEIR WISDOM: I did not give an inch. And now it is their end game. Assassination threats with guns… They are warning us for the last time in their wisdom. This is not new. They have been throwing threats for a long time.

I WOULD RATHER DIE STANDING THAN KNEEL BEFORE YOU TO LIVE: I am calling out to these gangs, to the mob and to paramilitary structures. You witless crooks, you fools, you buffoons, you jackals… You jackals, do you think you can scare me? I would rather die standing than kneel before you to live. I dare you. Bring it on.

I WILL CONTINUE TO BE YOUR SCARIEST NIGHTMARE: Let me say this clearly. If God allows and I live, I will continue to be your scariest nightmare. Your trolls cannot keep me from my path. You cannot stop me.

YOU WILL COLLECT THOSE 418 BILLION DOLLARS: Let me say more thing. I am entrusting this to my compatriots if something happens to me. You must collect those 418 billion dollars. That money is the future of our youth. That money belongs to the unborn babies of this country. That money belongs to this nation. You must collect each and every dime. You must collect that money for the 85 million people of this country. This is my will for you. You will collect those 418 billion dollars.”