KONYA DECLARATION FROM 11 METROPOLITAN MAYORS

December 23, 2022

We, Metropolitan Mayors of the 11 biggest provinces of Türkiye, have gathered together for the 39th time, in Konya this time. We are very pleased to have completed our work on the 749th anniversary of the death of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi who engraved tolerance, compassion, the quality of being open to everyone and every idea, to the geography of Anatolia, in his own city, Konya.

Without a doubt, the only item on our agenda today was the unrest and chaos in the country, caused by court verdicts that are clearly manipulated by the party in power. The relative court’s verdict against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu sentencing him to two years, seven months and 15 days in prison and banning him from political activity is the very last and one of the heaviest examples of such verdicts. The fact that some members of the government defend this anti-democratic verdict that has attracted reactions both from Türkiye and from the world and communicate messages through the media to ensure that the ruling is upheld, points to the gravity of the incident. The attack is committed by the current regime with the hand of the judiciary that is under their tutelage and it is an attack against the perpetuity of democracy. It is an attack against the future of young generations. It is blackmail, plotting against the people and their right to vote. They will move our country towards irreversible darkness if we give in to this blackmail. We will not accept this blackmail and we will not give in to it.

It is now obvious that the party in power is choosing to start the 2023 General Elections with a ‘head start’ rather than engaging in a fair political competition. Without a doubt, this is the manifestation of the panic and frenzy they feel since they will lose the elections.

However, their efforts led to a backlash from the people proved that they would hold onto the national will in Saraçhane, on their leaders’ side.

We would like to call out once more from Konya, the capital of tolerance to those who have turned the state into their own personal apparatus because of their ambitions of power, to those who want to take the country to despotic darkness:

There have been many anti-democratic interventions and unlawfulness aiming to bring our people’s democratic will to a halt in the past. All of the efforts exerted by those in power to redesign the politics using the limitless power they think they have, have always been neutralized by the conscience of our people so far. No unlawfulness, no political engineering has been able to throw our nation off its historical track. This verdict will not be able to throw Türkiye off the track, either.

We have full confidence in the wisdom, vision, conscience and comprehension of our people. Our nation will hold onto her own will and teach a historical lesson in the ballot box to those who think their power has no limits.

Remember that we are the sons of daughters of the Republican People’s Party that was shut down in the 1980 military coup with all of its property ceased, all of its leaders tried, all of its youth tortured but never surrendered its free will and came back and rose from the ashes after every coup and every attack.

We are Metropolitan Mayors that were elected under the leadership of our Chairperson Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu who suffered assassination attempts, lynching, attacks under the term of this government; did not lose heart, surrender or bow down; created the Nation Alliance with wisdom and great vision; expanded the front of democracy and established a big Türkiye Alliance in the Table of Six.

We fully put our trust in our Chairperson Mr. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in this journey.

We have no doubt that the Table of six is going the bring victory to our country in the 2023 elections.

Remember: “No chair is worth toying with Türkiye’s democracy and the people’s peace. The duty of the government is to bring the people to the elections in peace and tranquility. It will not benefit anyone or any group to stress our people with artificial crises and issue verdicts that will cause social reactions in this process. We, 11 Metropolitan Mayors, hereby emphasize once again that we stand by more than 40 million citizens that we serve; feel that their problems are our own problems and implement our solution projects.”

We will further expand our union walking hand in hand, arm in arm, shoulder to shoulder on the path to democracy, justice and rights and we will rejoin bright days in the future, all together.

All will see what we can achieve all together on this path. As Atatürk once said, “There are no hopeless situations; there are hopeless people. I have never lost hope.” We will never lose hope either.

Our nation will never lose hope.