PRIME MINISTER RECEP TAYYİP ERDOĞAN'S SPEECH AT THE PARLIAMENTARY GROUP MEETING OF HIS JUSTICE AND DEVELOPMENT PARTY (AK PARTY) ON AUGUST 11, 2009

Distinguished guests,

My dear fellow deputies,

At the beginning of our group meeting, I would like to greet you with love, and I hope this gathering will benefit both our country and our nation.

As you know, this Friday, August 14, is our party’s eighth anniversary, and we’ll celebrate this day together.

During an Expanded Provincial Chairmen Meeting set for Friday, we’ll have the opportunity to comprehensively evaluate the past eight years.

But today I can say that our party, this movement and this staff have managed to fit decades of services, work that would normally take decades, into a mere eight years.

Turkey, from its domestic to foreign policy, from its economy to its social life, in all areas, has met a very different administrative understanding, a very positive problem-solving approach in this era.

Through the AK Party, Turkey has raised its hopes for the future, regained its self-confidence, and in unity and solidarity, it has begun to show the will to establish a strong country on this foundation of peace and confidence.

In as little as eight years, Turkey’s democracy has gained a very different dimension, under which its system and politics have become normal, and we have reached higher standards.

We have experienced, and hopefully we will experience an era in which we accept an understanding of politics focused on the nation, an understanding of politics focused on humanity, and in addition, an understanding of the embrace of the whole nation, and all these as pillars of our philosophy.

Strengthening democracy, raising the standards of our democracy, ensuring the unity of the state and the nation, and strengthening confidence in all areas are among our goals, and we have already realized most of them.

Our beloved nation admires how we have displayed a brave democratic stance, how we have followed consistent politics by standing up to all sorts of obstacles that we have faced over the last eight years.

Our course has always been the course of the nation.

We have managed to be the top vote-getter in four successive elections.

We have never cast doubt on the trust of our nation. We have never gotten spoiled, and have never gotten exhausted, and we have strived to keep corruption, degeneracy, and the like out of our political movement.

From the standpoint of today, perhaps we cannot fully appreciate the standing of the recent past in the history of Turkey’s democracy.

However, I deeply believe that future historians will definitely place these eight years in Turkey’s democracy and the following decades in a class all their own.

The historians of our democracy, I believe, will stress the AK Party's determined efforts to maintain and glorify democracy.

When the people of the future look back, I believe, they will greatly admire the AK Party’s efforts in the judiciary, our fight against gangs, and our fight against powerful interests involved in shady deals, and will hold these up as a standard.

Again, I believe that thanks to the AK Party’s single-handed fight for democracy for eight years, in the years to come and the distant future, no one will dare to darken our democracy, weaken the democratic regime, or push the legal system into shady places.

The nation’s sovereignty, fortified by us today, will never again accept custody.

In the near and distant future, never again will people wonder whether Turkey will fall into the grip of gangs, mafia, and illegal organizations; thanks to our resolute struggle, future generations will also work to enjoy clean politics.

The AK Party has become the top player in Turkey’s struggle for democracy, justice and the rule of law, and the progress accompanied by reforms.

Here's why I say: This party, this group, this organization and this movement are the group that wrote history, wrote our name in history, and changed the course of history for the better.

Turkey, thanks to you all my dear colleagues, has experienced unprecedented accomplishments. From now on, God willing, it will continue such accomplishments.

In this connection, again I would like to thank all of you.

In the name of myself, my party, and my nation, I like to express my deepest gratitude to my colleagues who fell in love with our movement and worked so hard.

I thank my beloved nation for giving us such great support and keeping us in their prayers.

I say again, we have a lot left to do … We still have a long way to go … We have new ventures, new goals to provide more happiness, more peace and more prosperity in Turkey …

We have never disappointed our nation, and nor shall we in the future.

We have never shaken the nation’s confidence in us, God willing, and nor shall we in the future.

We have never strayed from the nation’s course, and nor shall we in the future.

God bless us …

My dear colleagues,

Last week Parliament elected its new speaker, and he (Mehmet Ali Şahin) took office.

First of all, I wish him success … Let’s hope for the best for our country, nation and democracy. In the name of myself, and my group, I would like also to extend my gratitude to his predecessor.

In addition, we held elections for AK Party group deputy chairs, members of the Parliament Presidential Board and administrative officials, and they also took office. I wish all of them success.

In the days and weeks to come, Parliament will again take up important bills and proposals. Without slackening our pace, by standing up to all obstacles and efforts to slow us down, we’ll decisively continue our work and legislative work.

We have no right to waste even a minute on this road we’re going down in the name of the nation and carrying the trust of the nation on our shoulders …

You see, despite the summer doldrums, both our party and our government are continuing to work without any letup in the pace.

On July 30, we started the era of Third Generation communications in Turkey. We issued licenses, established the conditions of the necessary infrastructure, and so carried Turkey to a new stage in both communications and technology.

Today, Turkish subscribers are enjoying talking to each other also on video screens. Furthermore, 3G technology is easing our life across a wide area, from tourism to education, from health to transportation.

In addition, in the midst of an economic crisis, our Treasury has reaped TL 2.1 billion in resources through the 3G technology … Turkey has had new investments and new areas of employment.

We, the AK Party government, have brought Turkey this huge change, this great transformation.

Now, our new goal is the 4th era, in other words, 4G, and hopefully we will also introduce this technology to Turkey.

Another important subject is our recent arrangement of the bureaucracy, which can be seen as a quiet revolution …

In public services, we brought new criteria for information and documents sought from applicants. We eliminated 421 documents from the process, while for 215 services, we ended the notarization requirement.

My friends, these are not simple issues. Our citizens were tired of dealing with red tape. Now we've cut bureaucratic procedures, in doing so both lifting a burden from the government and making things easier for our citizens.

Note that every year, citizens were being asked for an average of 15 million criminal records and 38 million identity cards. But now, with the Republic Identity Number, all procedures are being implemented without waiting in line, with no fees or red tape.

Again, I want to talk about another topic which has been speculated on …

Recently, certain young groups have protested and provoked the nation on a topic on which no final decision has made yet. This is regrettable. The Board of Higher Education (YÖK) can make proposals, but the Cabinet has the authority to make the final decision. The proposal was examined by the Cabinet, and an 8 percent of rise in the contribution tuition fee was decided on. Do note, the board asked for an increase of about 400 percent, 500 percent, but we cannot impose such a burden on our students. Have we ever done such a thing since we came to power? The fees have never been more than 5 percent, and now we agreed on 8 percent.

Meanwhile, the Higher Education Credit and Hostels Institution, I want to underline, over the last six years, has given to all applying students, according to their financial situation, scholarship, loans for education and tuition fees, and these will continue. In other words, none of the applying students were turned down by our government. We made education our priority; we allocated the greatest share of the budget and the maximum staff to education. The greatest investment jumps were realized under our government. Universities in 81 provinces were opened in our term. The percentage of students who had the opportunity to be educated at universities has jumped during our term. Now at such a time, attempts to provoke and mislead are regrettable. I call on the young people involved in these efforts to realize that you cannot deceive young people who have common sense and parents. You should recognize this.

In 2002, 405,791 students received tuition loans, and now, as of 2009, this number hit 483,993.

In addition, the students receiving education loans used to be 451,550, and do you know how many got them this year? 817,702.

In 2002, the amount of the education loan was TL 45 and it was paid quarterly. In 2005, we began to pay the scholarship and education loans to students monthly, and as of 2009, we paid every applicant student TL 180 a month.

Again, through a law passed on July 10, we rearranged the debts of debtors to the Higher Education Credit and Hostels Institution, and we provided convenience. We did this. My dear friends, it is not only a matter of universities. In primary and secondary education, we delivered books free on charge, and we’ll continue to do so. No one can ignore this.

Meanwhile, we have recently enjoyed a series of very important international contacts.

As you know, Turkey is in a region where, especially in the Middle East and Caspian, about two-thirds of the world's natural gas reserves are located.

In order to benefit from this position, we have launched historic ventures which have enabled our country to become a strategic energy hub.

We started operation of the Kirkuk-Yumurtalık and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipelines.

The Western Line, which carries Russian natural gas, Iran-Turkey, Blue Stream, and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural gas pipelines and Turkey-Greece-Italy-Natural Gas Interconnector projects, which confirm Turkey’s importance not only regionally, but also globally, have also come, and they continue to develop.

Two of our other important ventures are transporting Turkmen natural gas to Turkey and Iraq’s natural gas to our country through a pipeline parallel to the Kirkuk-Yumurtalık pipeline. These two are also going on.

Our work on the Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline is continuing.

In July, we signed the Intergovernmental Agreement for the Nabucco Project in Ankara.

We thus took a further step towards our aim to become Europe's fourth natural gas artery.

Last week, we hosted our friend and Premier of the neighboring Russian Federation Mr. Putin and my dear friend, Italian Premier Mr. Berlusconi, in our country.

We entered a new era of relations with the Russian Federation by signing a total of 20 documents, mainly in the areas of energy, the economy and culture.

In the three areas of gas, oil and nuclear energy, we signed protocols to develop cooperation between our two countries.

We also gave Russia permission to explore the Black Sea in a region restricted to Turkey concerning the Southern Stream Pipeline.

Furthermore, in energy, between the Turkish Atomic Energy Agency and its Russian counterpart, Rosatom, we signed two more agreements on the peaceful usage of nuclear energy and early warnings of nuclear disasters and on nuclear facilities.

My dear colleagues, following our comprehensive meetings with Mr. Putin, we held a tripartite meeting with the attendance of Italian Premier Mr. Berlusconi.

During the meetings in Ankara, another important development occurred, and by deciding to take part in the Samsun-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline Project, on which we have been working with Italy, Russia pledged to supply oil to the pipeline.

My dear colleagues, all these contacts, visits, meetings, all these agreements and implemented projects, are the clearest and most concrete signals that Turkey is now moving in a very different lane, on a very different course.

Turkey is now taking a special place in the world with its large, strong economy which is resistant to any turmoil.

Turkey, with its democracy, appreciation of human rights and freedoms, with its stable social structure on the ground of trust, my dear colleagues, is rising to a different position in the world.

Turkey is becoming prominent as a country whose views are appreciated and considered, whose mediation is needed on international matters.

And Turkey, as a country which has the most central, strategic role in the world’s huge energy projects, is attracting attention and admiration.

Turkey has experienced a great change and transformation under AK Party rule, and this swift change and transformation are continuing.

Trying to describe Turkey using yesterday’s words, yesterday’s concepts and adjectives, would be insufficient and inadequate.

We don’t try to restrict today to the issues of yesterday, with discussions of yesterday, with endless squabbling and tensions that can’t benefit our country in the slightest, and those who seek to do this are harming both themselves and our country.

Now I'll ask you to stretch your imagination a little:

I wonder if Turkey had achieved single-digit inflation in the 1970s, not in 2005 under AK Party rule, what sort of Turkey would we be living in today?

If Turkey’s exports had reached $132 billion at the end of 1970, at the end of 1980, at the end of 1990, not at the end of 2008 … if Turkey had risen to be the world's 17th-largest economy 10 years, 20 years ago, not today, where would we be right now?

I wonder, if we had gained the standards that we gained in democracy today, 10, 20, or 30 years ago, where would Turkey be now? Did we consider this; did we ask ourselves this question?

If discussions of guardianship over democracy had ended much earlier, not with the AK Party, what level would our democracy be at now?

If Turkey hadn’t delayed its fight with illegal networks, its fight with the mafia, its fight with shadowy organizations, if it hadn’t covered up murders by persons unknown, if it had applied the law and democracy with all its institutions and rules, I wonder what sort of country we would be living in today.

If Turkey hadn’t become introverted in the past, if it hadn’t put up virtual walls around itself, if it had instead followed an active foreign policy, if it had taken more powerful roles in regional issues, in global issues, what sort of country would we be living in today?

You see, we asked and will ask ourselves these questions … We feel the necessity to ask these questions …

But also in the same way, we are doing everything we can so future generations don't have to ask these questions …

And now we're also asking this question, loud and clear:

If Turkey hadn’t sacrificed its energy, its resources, its budget, its gains; above all these, its peace, welfare, and young men to terror …

If Turkey hadn’t wasted the last 25 years on terror, on fighting, on a state of emergency, with murders by persons unknown, on evacuated villages, on images of coffins covered with our red-starred flag, where would we be right now?

If the problem had been understood when it was rising and the needed measures had been taken then …

If the case had been resolved before it grew …

Where would Turkey be today if the problem had been easily solved before tens of thousands died, tens of thousands were injured, and hundreds of thousands suffered?

I want you to ask these questions by multiplying them … I want us to ask them as the entire nation …

I ask our beloved nation to ask these questions and objectively examine it in detail …

What happened, where were the mistakes, where were bad policies applied, where were mistaken positions taken …

Who dared to believe that our millennia of friendship, kinship, and brotherhood would break away, fall and perish, with some working to sow the seeds of discord?

Was it so easy?

Was it possible to break apart, make rivals out of the Turks and Kurds, Lazes and Circassians, who for thousands of years have lived together, intermarried, became kin to each other and inseparable? How would one dare separate, make rivals and enemies of the diversities of Turkey which we see as richness?

Under Saladin Eyyubi’s flag, weren’t we the soldiers of the army which conquered Jerusalem and turned it into a peaceful, stable city?

In Çaldıran, in Yavuz Sultan Selim’s army, weren’t we brothers to one another?

In Yemen, in the Dardanelles, in Sarıkamış, in Kut’ül Amare, weren’t we the one who defended the homeland together, died as martyrs together, and became veterans of war?

Aren’t we the brave sons of the Turkish War of Independence? Aren’t we the ones who built the republic and glorified it in line with our shared aims and values?

Aren’t our hearts touched when we listen to the Turkish national anthem?

Aren’t our eyes welling with tears when we hear the Yemen folk song?

Just like the poems of Fuzuli touch our souls, don’t the lines of Ahmedi Han touch our hearts in the same way?

When Neşet Ertaş says “Gönül Dağı” (Heart Mountain), each of us shudders … Likewise, we plunge into the depth of our souls when Shevan Perwer says “Halepçe” or “Hazal.”

As Yunus Emre, Mevlana Rumi, Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli, Karacaoğlan, and Pir Sultan laid the foundations of Turkish culture, Dengbejs, who lived outside Munzur, were sowing the seeds of fellowship in the same lands.

Horon is our horon … Zeybek is our zeybek … Halay is our halay … Scold is our scold …

Who dares separate us?

Who dares try to shatter our brotherhood?

Who dares set us against each other?

Who dares turn the people of the Turkish Republic against each other?

All the citizens of this country – whether Turkish, Laz, Kurdish, Circassian or Georgian – are our brothers. No one can extinguish this.

My dear fellows, there is no pain worse than losing a child. May God bless everyone that they never experience this. But for the last 25 years many mothers in this country – whether they live in the east, west, north or south – felt terror whenever the phone rang.

When they reached for the phone, they faced a terrible choice: Would they talk to their sons, or would they hear tragic news?

I felt this in a house that I visited. It was a martyr’s home. The mother said her son had called her the previous day and said he was coming home. He had asked for his mother’s prayers and added that he longed for martyrdom. The mother said she learned about her son’s death the next day. When they showed me what her son carried in his bosom, my whole world shook. He had been shot in the heart.

Whose mother can live with this?

Whose mother can carry such a burden?

As they always say, what words can comfort a mother who laments her loss, screaming the words “I raised my son and he joined the army. He left home and didn’t come back. What will I do now”?

For almost 30 years, many mothers fainted over the phone. They live by Mt. Ararat, Mt. Munzur, Mt. Cudi and Argaeus. We all saw this. And fathers also cried their hearts out.

Motherhood has no ideology. Motherhood has no politics, left or right.

No matter how their sons lost their lives... If the mother living in Yozgat and the one in Hakkari say the same Muslim prayers by their sons’ tombs, if all the Muslims turn to Mecca, this makes clear that something is very wrong.

It is clear that no one benefits from this. It is clear that it is Turkey which loses – our country, our people and our future.

It is clear that it's the mothers and fathers who lose.

The mothers of the martyrs can come together and embrace in Diyarbakır, but you can see people getting disturbed by this. We are making progress on this issue. There is an ongoing process coordinated by the Interior Ministry. I don’t call it a policy package but a process. During this process, we would like to talk with the leaders of political parties, whether they are in Parliament or not. We would like to talk with academics, our country's intellectuals, members of the media, non-governmental organizations, and those who want a say in this. All these discussions are coordinated by the Interior Ministry.

But you saw yesterday that the main opposition and the other opposition party, when a letter was sent to both of them, an immediate rejection was the reply. Weren’t they the ones who sought compromise, weren’t they the ones who sought consensus in this country? But if you won't have consensus on this, if you won't seek a solution on this matter, where will you seek a solution, can you tell me? I mean my Cabinet minister won't come and impose something on you, he will share something with you. Do you have something to say, tell us this and we will make it part of the effort too. We want to put it in the final declaration, in the report and make a milestone in this process, God willing.

My dear colleagues and dear guests,

We continue this effort in order to find a lasting solution to this issue, to create a background for security, to reinforce the climate of fellowship, and we will continue to do so.

I want to stress another matter here:

In the historical process which brought the AK Party into existence and even after establishing the party, we have always been the side which looks at issues in the most productive way, evaluates issues in the most productive way, and introduces the will for a solution.

Since we entered the political scene we looked at the matter in terms of the country's integrity, an understanding of fellowship; we looked at it from the view of citizenship law.

We have constantly said that terror is unacceptable, inexcusable, and untenable. We have not shown even a slightest weakness in the fight against terrorism.

Today the current situation comes not from weakness but from our successful execution of the fight against the terrorism. We will agree to deal with legal bodies. Neither the AK Party nor our government will ever agree to deal with illegal organizations. You must know that too. No one can cast doubt on us in this matter. Never have we displayed inconsistent behavior … Never have we displayed conflicting explanations, or insincere approaches …

We have not made the issues contingent on conditions or relationships based on political benefits.

But let me say this clearly: We can in no way posses, share, or maintain the political mentality which produced our Kurdish citizens’ problems, the political approach which brought things to this point.

Our worldview, political philosophy cannot see it is as normal to produce such a problem, to doom such a problem to a deadlock, or to turn a blind eye to a problem such as this.

Views which call for the problem to persist and for solutions to fail also take part in the sin of the pains which were suffered.

We don’t expect any help from the mindset that brought the problem to this point but we say: don't darken it, don't block it, don't close your doors to this project of fellowship, peace and integrity, this project of national unity. All we do is this.

Come, let's shape this effort together.

The AK Party has followed the same political line since it was founded …

There is no difference between the framework we set forth on August 14, 2001, when we founded our party, and the one we set forth in Diyarbakır in 2005. Just look at the speeches from those days, and anyone can see this.

Because we put it in our program. This is not a cobbled-together effort. There is no difference between the views we expressed in Diyarbakır and the will we put forward today.

We have supported our eastern and southeastern provinces with investment incentives, public investments and especially with educational, medical and social aid, and we have worked to make up for their losses.

Along with the Konya Plain Project and the Eastern Anatolia Project and Southeastern Anatolia Project, we have designated an action plan and, God willing, we will be finishing these projects in 2013 and we will accomplish the objective.

My dear fellows, God willing, this will be a democratic expansion project. Let’s see it like this, as this is an important initiative.

We made expansions in teaching mother tongues and education and also broadcasting in mother tongues. Now see, has anyone mentioned the courses on teaching the mother tongue which we opened in recent months? No, not at all. Has anyone mentioned TRT 6? No, not at all. Has anyone mentioned the steps aimed at teaching Kurdish at universities? No, not at all. Now look carefully, none of the steps, except the economy, that this government took on culture have been mentioned. The rhetoric of “They didn't give, but only took” is still around. Sorry, but if you come with this kind of mentality, then you are lost. We have been taking these steps with the awareness of the responsibility of being a government, you should all know this.

We said this as early as August 14, 2001 when we started: East will be the same as west, south will be the same as north; we’ve said that. We said in our speech at Antalya that we have three red lines. We said that we won’t practice ethnic nationalism and we took the road and we have never made compromises and we still won’t. Since we consider this 780,000-kilometer country a developed entry into modern civilization, we will achieve this. In energy, health, justice, and security; with all the highways, all the housing estates and transformation projects, we will take these steps in agriculture, we will take these steps in energy. We established the KÖYDES project for this reason, the BELDES project in the same way. For God’s sake, was there anything like this before? Today if information technology classes have opened even in schools in Patnos and our children are playing with computers like they play with balls and meet the world through ADSL, if they have reached this capability, then this is because of the steps taken by our government. We must recognize this.

We set the proper grounds for comprehensible solutions to the problem throughout the process, and fostered it, and also the AK Party brought it to this point; this is what we have done.

I am very pleased to declare that today we are witnessing a broad-based consensus coming together for a permanent solution to the problem.

Nobody can paint themselves as the representatives of our ethnic Kurdish citizens. Our party got 47 percent support on July 22, and 39 percent in the previous poll, and was first party among the seven regions and the first party, my beloved brothers, in the vast majority of 81 provinces and second in the remaining. That is to say, we are the party of Turkey, we are Turkey’s party. We're not just the party of some provinces or region or some regions. We are the party of 71.5 million citizens of this country, our difference lies here, and we are proud of that. But despite this, we still say we are not the whole of Turkey. Hence we say let’s stand shoulder to shoulder, let’s cooperate with all the political parties, nongovernmental organizations, academics, media, and writers and this way solve this issue.

I don't want to get bogged down in squabbling here. I will not respond to Mr. Bahceli, who criticized us with bias and unfairly, and far from it, declared us traitors. I believe that even Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) own members are uneasy about Mr. Bahceli's stance. I believe this. It is very wrong that Mr. Bahceli made such statements in the runup to his party's coming general convention. Mr. Bahceli has neither a quality nor career fit to measure or assess the level of our patriotism. Be sure of this. I don't want to respond to Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal, either. I will not engage in arguments with them. But I want to tell them that they acted too hastily in determining their stance, dragging them into an attitude not in favor of a solution but a deadlock. They must understand this.

In other words, it seems they are ready to block the government initiative to solve the issue without knowing anything about it. This is the situation they are in.

Our work on the action plan and the road map as part of the initiative in question is continuing. It hasn't reached its final stage. Neither the government's coordinator for the initiative (Interior Minister Beşir Atalay) nor I have made any statement about the details of the planned initiative. Despite this fact, the opposition leaders and other opposition party officials have made statements about it which violate political decency. The language they have adopted is a language that is not even used by ordinary people. How can a deputy working under the roof of this Parliament use such a language? How can this happen? Where is their sense of decency? How can something like this happen? Nobody has the right to call my fellows this, or to insult them like this. But I believe that the members and grassroots of the MHP itself will call them to account for this language. I believe that the members and grassroots of the CHP will call the party officials to account for this language as well. We seek to form a common and unifying language. We look for a solution to the issue through common sense and mind. But unfortunately, the opposition leaders say that they oppose both common and unifying language and common sense and mind.

However, at this point, the most important thing is that a common soul, ideal and will towards a solution to the issue have been reached. Hopes have risen in every corner of Turkey that a new process was started with full hearts and in good faith to solve the issue.

Of course exploitative mechanisms will begin to work.

Of course those who try to benefit from continuing the issue will make every effort to derail this process.

Of course those who harp on notions such as independence, national unity and integrity, and loyalty, those who exploit these notions, which are highly esteemed notions for all of us, to reach their political ambitions will come into the picture in the days to come

But I want to declare with all my heart and sincerity that we have no intention other than solving this issue to benefit Turkey, and the 71.5 million Turkish people, for our future, whatever political risks it carries, and whatever political advantages or disadvantages it brings. We cannot have any intention aside from this. I want to express this clearly.

My dignified fellows! We have always been representatives of a politics based on unity and solidarity, and will continue to be representatives of approaches in line with such a politics from now on. Of course you know why electoral support for those political parties is limited to specific regions of the country. This is because of the stances they have adopted on such matters. But we think of the future of our country, the future of our people. This is the only thing that drives us.

Which political approach is in Turkey's interest? And which political style serves its unity and integrity? We believe that our beloved nation will consider this with deep insight.

My distinguished fellow deputies and dear guests!

I want you to imagine what a remarkable breakthrough process Turkey will hopefully enter into when this issue is solved in line with the principles of brotherhood and citizenship law.

Imagine when peace and security are completely ensured in our eastern and southeastern provinces, what significant contributions these provinces will make to both their local development and Turkey's overall development.

Imagine when teachers are appointed to the eastern or southeastern provinces, what a strong passion and aspiration they will have for their new duties.

Imagine that a doctor or engineer, and a police officer or soldier, whose duty is to provide peace and security, will, so to speak, run to the eastern and southeastern cities to carry out their duties with happiness, just like in other cities of Turkey.

Imagine that the newly established university in the southeastern Anatolia province of Hakkari reaches international standards, and the necessary groundwork for this is ensured, and that this future vision prevails in every corner of Hakkari.

Imagine that Turkey will be a country where no one feels like a second-class citizen, oppressed, cast out, or suppressed or lost before the state and its institutions.

Imagine that each of our 71.5 million citizens feels like first-class citizens, and that everyone makes an all-out effort for this country's common ideals, and to develop it.

Turkey accomplished all of these thanks to the AK Party government …

More is not impossible …

Believe that such a Turkey is not far away …

I believe with all my heart that it is now very close to us …

The AK Party will also accomplish this, the government will also achieve this …

In closing, I also want to say this:

Our intention is utterly sincere …

Our intentions are utterly pure …

We can no longer tolerate more young people or mothers' sons withering away …

We can no longer bear to hear mothers, wives and children wailing for the loss of their sons, husbands and fathers.

We have no patience anymore for seeing mothers shedding tears and wailing for the loss of their children.

We have no patience for Turkey losing and encountering more risks and threats …

We have no patience for dark clouds gathering over some parts of the country …

My friends, we have no patience for hopelessness …

We want to cool ourselves in the Botan Stream, to get enthusiastic like the Zap River, and to flow to peace and fellowship like the Euphrates, Tigris and Murat rivers. This is the cause we seek.

We want to feel snowflakes on the Munzur Mountains … We want to gather evergreens from Mt. Cudi and crocuses from Mt. Ağrı … We want to give flowers gathered from our country's seven regions to my country's mothers with pure hearts.

We want to open up new horizons for Turkey, we want to usher in a new era in Turkey, we want Turkey to make breakthroughs in all areas, we want to ensure that Turkey makes strides towards becoming a powerful country with an irrevocable resolution, and in an unalterable way.

We believe this is achievable. We saw what happened in the last seven years with the AK Party in office. The progress we made during this period is clear. We will achieve this goal regardless of its cost. We will achieve it together. We will achieve it with those who are here now, and those who are not.

We will bring off this fellowship project, this integration project, and this project of elevating Turkey together.

I greet all of you with love and respect … Thank you …