KILIÇDAROĞLU: "MY DEAR PEOPLE, WE WILL START THE CHANGE FROM THIS MERCILESS NEOLIBERAL ONE-MAN REGIME"

CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said, "We have much deeper problems than changing the government. We will change this government. That's simple, but we all know there must be a greater challenge than simply changing a government. Cause we need to change the mentality. If the mentality does not change, we will always face these problems... Gangs of five are robbing the treasury. They're building floors in expectation of a zoning amnesty. A zoning amnesty is coming out. The robbers remain silent. No voice is heard. Cities are built on profit. People who rent stores cut columns to gain a couple of square meters. Then, there's an earthquake; rents skyrocket in neighbouring cities. All opportunists, both small and big, are being given a platform. Let me tell you frankly, my dear people, we are ruled by rentiers." Kılıçdaroğlu said, "Dear citizens, we will initiate change from this brutal neoliberal one-man regime. But change won't stop there. The change will spread to all areas of public concern. And when the dawn breaks, which it will, the birds that were left homeless, without a home, without belonging in this country will find their nests again."

CHP Leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu spoke on the agenda at the Group Meeting in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. CHP Group Deputy Chairman Özgür Özel invited the participants of the group meeting to observe "2 minutes of silence" for the citizens who lost their lives in two significant earthquakes centred in Kahramanmaraş on February 6 and in Hatay last night. No applause or slogans were shouted when Kılıçdaroğlu took the podium.

During his speech, Kılıçdaroğlu said, "I ask you not to applaud or shout slogans as you did at the entrance. I will make a 15-minute speech, and then we will disperse quietly."

Here are the highlights of Kılıçdaroğlu's speech:

"IT IS THE BASIC DUTY OF EVERY POLITICIAN NOT TO CAUSE PAIN TO SOCIETY: It is one of the fundamental duties of every human being to learn from every pain. It is wise to take precautions and avoid the same suffering. The most valuable thing given by Almighty God is intellect. It is the essential duty of every politician to use our minds, to use science, to see the truth, and not to cause pain to society.

I WILL GO TO DEFNE TOMORROW WITH OUR MUNICIPALITIES' PRESIDENTS Yesterday evening around 8 pm (20.00), two earthquakes of magnitude 6.4 occurred in the Defne district and 5.8 in the Samandağ district. We have people who lost their lives. We wish them mercy from God. We expect the injured to have a speedy recovery. Tomorrow I will go to Defne with our mayors, and I will be there both to see the events on the ground and to follow the steps taken to heal the wounds.

A GREAT WOUND HAS OPENED IN OUR HEARTS: Dear friends, I greet our entire nation, everyone listening to us respectfully and lovingly. My dear people, we are trying to heal the wounds of the great disaster we have experienced. We lost many people, and colossal damage was opened in our hearts. Again, my condolences to our nation and all of us. I've thought for a long time about the speech I'm going to give here today. As the expression goes, 'words are inadequate'. It is. One needs to figure out what to say, how to say it. So I wrote my speech line by line. Before I start my speech, just like in the introduction, I ask that there be no applause or slogans. I will speak for 15 minutes and then we will disperse quietly.

THE REALITY WE SAW WAS TOO HORRIBLE AND FRIGHTENING TO BE REAL: Dear friends, we are experiencing a tremendous catastrophe. When I received the news, like all of you, I was horrified at first. Then it occurred to me that the best thing to do was to go to the earthquake zone immediately. Dear friends and citizens, I don't know how to describe what I saw. It was like we were in a dream. The reality we saw was too horrible and nightmarish to be accurate. There were no blue skies, no clouds. In our ancient cities, there was nothing but death.

BY NIGHTFALL WE WERE COMPLETELY EXHAUSTED: People were shouting their names in the streets, the names of their sons, brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers. Everyone was trying to say each other's names. By nightfall, we were utterly exhausted. How would you describe the night there? It's freezing cold and really wholly dark. We were looking for a place to sleep. Anyway, we found a place. I retreated to rest, but it was impossible to rest or sleep. I close my eyes, and those children, those names haunt me. I think about our people's pain; my grandchildren and my emotions are mixed.

AS OF THAT MOMENT, I WAS NOT THE SAME KEMAL: I thought they divided everything in this country, apart from the pain. Tomorrow my grandchildren will grow up; God willing, they will ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you in the most challenging times? What were you doing?' What will I tell them? I started thinking. That's when something inside me snapped. I realized that I could no longer be the old me. I was not the same Kemal as of that moment. I got up and started calling Ömer (Ömer Topsakal), my press advisor. The phone lines are down. Nothing works. I told Ömer that he would sleep in the car in front of the door at night, that he would be in the car. I went to the car. He wasn't sleeping anyway. Everyone has the same trauma. I said come on Ömer, we need to address our people. I must tell them where we will stand in the most challenging time. I said I needed to answer my future grandchildren's questions tonight.

I WILL NOT GLORIFY A STRUCTURE THAT DOES NOT EXIST FOR ITS NATION, FOR ITS CHILDREN: I refuse to align with Erdoğan above politics. I will not align with him, his palace, or his gangs. I will not align with a state structure that does not exist for his nation, neither above politics, nor below politics, nor death, nor life, nor death. I will not glorify a structure that does not exist for his nation, for his children. I said this. I said that I would never, never, never glorify it. I said that if I have solidarity, I will be in solidarity with my nation.

THERE ARE SUNNIS, ALAWITES, TURKS, and KURDS; IF I AM TO BE IN SOLIDARITY, I WILL BE IN SOLIDARITY WITH THEM: This country has 84 million souls. There are young and old. There are believers, non-believers, religious, and atheists. There are Sunnis and Alevis. There are Turks and Kurds. If I am going to show solidarity, I will show solidarity with them. I asked myself, "For God's sake, what is Erdoğan to them? Am I going to show solidarity with the Directorate of Communications, which made disgusting advertisements by saying it was above politics? When the Directorate of Communications started, it was already involved in many immoral endeavours.

MY HEARTBROKEN PEOPLE, DON'T YOU DESERVE TO BE BETTER: I did want to address our nation, but there was no internet connection. We are dealing with Ömer. People are waiting for us. We are trying to fix the internet connection. It has been 2 am. Anyway, we fixed the internet somehow. Now I would like to address our dear people from here again; O my people, my dear people, whose hearts are on fire, don't you deserve to be better? Will we continue to live in a country that always weaves sadness for its people? A century of our Republic has passed; shouldn't our second century be better? Shouldn't we try to change, to improve a state that cannot run to the problems of its people; isn't it time for that, dear people? They destroyed our spring, but shouldn't we give these tormented people a spring? Shouldn't we want something better in the second century? Of course, we will. Then we need to speak clearly. Let us not let our tears cloud our eyes.

MY DEAR PEOPLE, WE ARE RULED BY RENT-SEEKERS: We know we have much deeper issues than replacing a government. We will change the government. That is simple. But we all know the change must be more significant than changing a government because we need to change the mentality. Unless the mentality changes, we will always face these problems. We must eradicate the way of thinking that has left this country in the rubble. We need to reweave our values. We need to change our approach to the state. Gangs of five are robbing the treasury. They are building floors in the hope of a zoning amnesty. Zoning amnesty is given. The robbers are kept quiet. No voice is raised. Cities are built on rent. Those who rent shops cut columns to gain a few meters. Then, there is an earthquake; rents skyrocket in neighbouring cities. All small and big opportunists are given a platform.

Let me put it bluntly, my dear people, the greedy ones are tolerated. Cunning people who think they are competent tax the state and cheat their customers. Business people chase law loopholes with their financial advisors. Arrogance is applauded. Theft is condoned. The order continues as it is. Opportunism is being practised immediately. Everyone, big and small, is after rent. Betrayal, lies and self-interest. What in God's name is this? My dear people, what kind of order is this, for God's sake? What have we done to ourselves? What is this love of extravagance, for God's sake... Shouldn't we sit and think?

WE HAVE TO CHANGE EVERYTHING FUNDAMENTALLY: My dear people, we will blame this system first because they brought this order. But we also have to blame ourselves a little bit. What about politicians? Those involved in politics get rich quickly and abnormally. You see it, and I see it. Politicians always raise and lower their hands for zoning amnesties in case we lose votes. Then the courtiers can openly threaten people. They've been keeping notes. They are out of their minds. They are out of their minds. But, of course, they would because they live in a completely different universe. They have utterly different self-confidence in their understanding of politics. A self-confidence that should not exist. In short, my dear friends, we need to change; we need to change the system fundamentally, the way the system works. We need to change the way the state operates. We need to change the way politics is done and our behaviour. We need to bring our values closer to our behaviour. Those who do not talk about values must reflect this in their behaviour. In short, we have to change everything fundamentally.

WE WILL START THE CHANGE FROM THIS BRUTAL NEOLIBERAL ONE-MAN REGIME: Dear friends, dear friends, dear people; we will start the change from this brutal neoliberal one-man regime. But the change will not stop here. The change will spread to every area that concerns the people. And when the dawn breaks, and it breaks, the birds that have been left homeless, homeless and without belonging will find their nests again in this country. Earthquakes will always happen, dear friends; this is our region, and we cannot avoid them. But the state will no longer be helpless in the face of earthquakes. So let this nightmare never happen again.

BE SURE NEPOTISM WILL END; ABUSE WILL END, GREED WILL END, RENT WILL END: Politics will wash its hands of haram, disorder, lies and hypocrisy—no more of this in our second century. Rest assured; nepotism will end, abuse will end, greed will end, and illicit will end. Each of us will put our hands under the stone. Everyone living in this geography will put their hands under the rock. First, we will believe that is the rule. Then, we will believe in each other; we will believe that we will change the country; we will believe that we will bring justice and think that we deserve better.

WE WILL NO LONGER TALK ABOUT ZONING AMNESTIES. WE WILL MAKE PLANS; WE WILL FOLLOW THOSE PLANS: We have to believe in our honourable people who have been in solidarity since the night of the earthquake. Together with those beautiful people, we will rebuild this country for those beautiful people. We will build it with science, thought, technique and merit. We will set regulations; we will never break those regulations. We will no longer talk about zoning amnesties. We will make plans; we will follow those plans, and we will stick to them. We will build institutions. The one-man rule will never happen again in this geography. We will separate the halal from the legal. Upon my conscience, we will change this illicit order. Let this be the end, my friends; tomorrow, when our children and grandchildren ask, let's say, 'we ended this nightmare'."