Politics
Erdoğan says he defied odds, vows to stand for ‘Türkiye’s great cause’
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan remains defiant as ever as he challenges critics of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and, more importantly, what he called “a cause for great Türkiye and the nation.”
Erdoğan underlined on Wednesday that what he and fellow members of the party worked for was beyond politics and for a greater cause for advancing the prospects of the country. Addressing the party’s parliamentary group meeting in Ankara, the president also stressed he was merely a member of the movement.
“Erdoğan may go away tomorrow, but there will be thousands more Erdoğans,” he said amid the applause of fellow AK Party members.
The president’s speech was mostly a criticism of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the archrival of the AK Party, which has nonetheless failed to defeat it in elections for more than two decades. He also devoted a large portion of the speech to his personal struggles in politics, where he confronted betrayal, threats of death and attempts to curb the rise of the AK Party.
His speech began with praise for Turkish youth and how the AK Party has never discriminated among the youth. Erdoğan had attended a youth festival earlier in the northwestern province of Kocaeli, organized by his party, and met youngsters again on the occasion of the Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day on May 19. The CHP has claimed the AK Party tricked the youth into joining the event by offering free concerts.
“The opposition was apparently jealous of the crowd at that event,” Erdoğan said. “It also proved them wrong,” he said, referring to the opposition’s claims that the party was more popular among older people.
“We had 100,000 young people there,” he pointed out.
He noted that the AK Party embraced everyone regardless of their background. “Throughout my life in politics, which is now nearly 50 years, I walked this path with the youth. Any movement turning its back on the youth has no chance of success,” he stated.
“The AK Party is popular among the youth. We don’t do politics for the youth, we do it with the youth. We attended to the needs of the youth instead of lecturing them. We embraced the youth memorizing the Quran just as we embraced the youth recovering from addictions,” he stated.
The president then engaged in a long talk about the history of the AK Party as he recalled the anniversary of the May 14 general elections and the upcoming anniversary of the second round of the same vote that secured Erdoğan another victory as president.
“About three months later, we will also celebrate the 25th anniversary of our AK Party,” he said.
After a video on the history of the AK Party and Erdoğan was screened, the president opened up about his emotions.
“I would like to say what I have in my heart now, without a filter. When I set out on this path, I was conscious of how long it would take us, how deep the waters before us would be. We know it won’t be easy. We had memories of the unfortunate end of Menderes, Polatkan and Zorlu,” the president said, referring to late Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and his two ministers who were hanged by a military junta after the May 27, 1960 coup. Menderes is among Erdoğan’s political idols.
“We were still feeling the threat of May 27, March 12, Sept. 12 and Feb. 28,” he listed the past coups and military ultimatums that derailed democracy in Türkiye.
“Some among us suffered torture, others were imprisoned for years. Our parties were shut down, and our political march was obstructed. We were ignored, alienated, and ostracized. We suffered in our own homeland. Yet, we never feared, never gave up. It is because this is a movement serving the interests of one or one group. This is not a movement seeking personal gains. This is not a movement without roots. It is the cause of great Türkiye, a great nation. This is the cause of ummah,” he stated.
He recalled how some circles have worked to disrupt the AK Party since it was founded, how the coup plots were hatched to overthrow its governments, and how the party faced a lawsuit for its closure in its fifth year.
“You, our nation, witnessed this, but there have also been attacks and challenges you have not seen. We could bow down, we could surrender, or comply with what they wanted. We could go about our business without saying anything about (the country). Like many governments before us, we could have stayed in our comfort zone and could have avoided taking risks. We didn’t do it and hit the road. We pursued a dream. We offered our lives for the cause of our nation. We did so because we were indebted to our ancestors, our ummah, the oppressed, the martyrs. We owe it to the self-sacrificing, brave people of the cause who lived before us and served this cause,” he said.
“This Erdoğan may go away one day, but there will be thousands more Erdoğans to serve this cause,” Erdoğan said.
This sentence prompted a journalist to ask Erdoğan after the parliamentary group meeting if this was “a farewell speech.”
“Was it?” Erdoğan asked in return cryptically.
Erdoğan is expected to run again in the 2028 elections, though some media outlets speculate that this may be his last electoral race. Some political pundits claim this is his last eligible tenure under the presidential system, but he may be nominated again if the election is rescheduled to an earlier date. The AK Party has signaled that a rescheduling of elections, possibly to autumn 2027, may be considered.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will attend a NATO foreign ministers meeting in the Swedish city of Helsingborg on May 21-22, Turkish Foreign Ministry sources said on Wednesday.
The meeting is expected to focus on preparations for the NATO summit to be hosted by Türkiye in Ankara on July 7-8, as well as alliance unity, trans-Atlantic cooperation, strengthening defense industry production capacity, continued support for Ukraine and converting rising defense spending into military capabilities.
The ministers are also expected to discuss developments related to Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, including their implications for Euro-Atlantic security and the broader global security environment.
NATO’s southern flank policies and recent developments affecting Euro-Atlantic security, particularly the Russia-Ukraine war, are also expected to be on the agenda.
The meeting will begin on May 21 with an informal working dinner of the NATO-Ukraine Council attended by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
During the dinner, Fidan is expected to reaffirm Türkiye’s support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity while highlighting Ankara’s diplomatic efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
Ankara summit preparations
On May 22, the meeting will continue with a session attended only by the foreign ministers of NATO’s 32 member states.
Fidan is expected to brief allies on preparations for the Ankara summit during the meeting, which will be the last gathering of NATO foreign ministers before alliance leaders meet in July.
The Turkish foreign minister is also expected to outline Türkiye’s expectations for the summit and stress Ankara’s efforts to ensure the meeting demonstrates NATO unity and cohesion.
Fidan will provide information on Türkiye’s contributions to NATO and highlight the country’s efforts to transform defense spending into military capabilities, emphasizing that transatlantic defense industry cooperation within the alliance should be developed without restrictions.
He is also expected to underscore the importance of NATO’s “360-degree security approach” to counter threats from all directions, including deeper engagement with the alliance’s southern neighborhood and stronger counterterrorism efforts.
“The shadow of this great tree cannot shelter the corrupted and those engaged in sins,” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, former leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) said in a video published on his social media account on Wednesday.
“The great tree” was Türkiye’s oldest party mired with allegations of corruption and extramarital affairs of its high-profile members.
Kılıçdaroğlu’s message was a thinly veiled barb at the current administration which is accused of vote-buying to bring incumbent chair Özgür Özel to power as he succeeded Kılıçdaroğlu in a 2023 intra-party election.
This is the second such message by Kılıçdaroğlu in months, to call CHP “purge the corrupted.”
“This party is entrusted to us and we cannot stain it. The party knows when to purge itself (of corruption),” Kılıçdaroğlu stated.
“Dirty politics destroys morals and eventually, set its sights on this nation’s money. We have to keep the politics clean. This responsibility belongs to members of CHP. This is a great tree that did not bow down to anyone, a party which was closed down, went through the coups but did not submit. CHP does not stray from its path to govern, to instill hope again to people. Some people expect me to remain silent. Hear me now: I don’t negotiate the interests of my nation and party for anything. I defy your defamation and threats. I stand for truth,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.
Kılıçdaroğlu, who replaced Deniz Baykal after the former resigned from his post over a sex tape scandal, ran CHP for 13 years.
A loss to incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the May 2023 elections led to an intraparty election in November 2023. Kılıçdaroğlu’s unsuccessful run against Erdoğan despite the support from other parties, made him a pariah in his own party. Some CHP supporters even accused him of being a stooge of Erdoğan.
The accusations mounted further when Kılıçdaroğlu suggested himself as a trustee if the party was to be closed as the result of the vote-buying trial. “I devoted my life of 70 years to people’s fight for justice. I have nothing to leave behind than my fight for morals,” he said.
The first official reaction to Kılıçdaroğlu’s remarks was by Ali Mahir Başarır, acting group chair of CHP. “CHP is a clean party. That’s why we joined Mr. Kemal in his March for Justice,” he said at a news conference on Wednesday in Ankara, referring to Kılıçdaroğlu’s famous 2017 walk from Ankara to Istanbul to protest the arrest of a CHP lawmaker.
“If he still occupied his seat in CHP, he would march with us when our mayors were arrested,” Başarır said, referring to mayors accused of corruption.
“I believe he calls for cleaning the judiciary,” he added. “All our chairs, our staff are clean,” he countered Kılıçdaroğlu.
Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş continues to pledge a safer era for children in the digital world, informing reporters on Monday after a Cabinet meeting that a new regulation will be in force within six months to regulate social media use for children under the age of 15.
Göktaş said the world was adapting to similar practices and that Ankara had developed its own model. “We specifically examined the Australia (model) and made assessments to address any shortcomings in that model.”
Göktaş said a new law involving social media regulations will create safer digital spaces for children and promote controlled use. She said they aimed to prevent children’s exposure to content not suitable for their ages and development. The minister stated that the ministry has set up a working group for setting the rules in the implementation of the regulations on social media and is in coordination with all relevant public agencies.
“This working group will soon establish the rules, and the regulation will be in force within six months,” she said.
She noted that the efforts would not be limited to a single legal regulation but would include a comprehensive technical infrastructure and application mechanisms. She also pointed out that the new law assigned responsibilities to social network providers and that authorities would implement an age verification system, particularly through the e-Government portal. The system will be maintained in coordination with the Cybersecurity Directorate of the Turkish Presidency and the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK).
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday pledged to build a stronger and “terror-free Türkiye” for younger generations, saying the country would continue advancing toward its “Century of Türkiye” vision with youth at the forefront.
Speaking during a reception for young people and national athletes at the Presidential Complex in Ankara to mark the May 19 Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day, Erdoğan said Türkiye’s youth represented the “pioneers, architects and guides” of a new era for the country.
“We are trying to free our country from a half-century-old scourge through the process of a terror-free Türkiye while also strengthening our national unity and solidarity,” Erdoğan said. “Our greatest goal is for you not to experience the hardships and difficulties that we endured.”
The president said Türkiye would continue investing in youth “in every field” as it moves toward its long-term national goals.
Erdoğan also highlighted the historical significance of May 19, 1919, when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk arrived in Samsun and launched the War of Independence against occupying forces following World War I.
“The first page of our epic National Struggle was written on May 19, 1919, with the youth of Anatolia and with the ink of our nation’s independence and future,” he said.
During the program, Erdoğan met with young participants and athletes from across Türkiye and abroad, answering questions and holding informal discussions.
In a lighter moment during the gathering, Erdoğan said he still plays basketball three times a week and joked that he scored 68 points during a morning game.
Türkiye’s Foreign Ministry on Monday condemned events and statements held in Greece on May 19 over so-called “Pontus” allegations, criticized Athens for distorting history and exploiting historical grievances for political purposes.
In a statement marking the anniversary of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s arrival in Samsun in 1919 – the beginning of Türkiye’s War of Independence against occupying powers, including Greece – the ministry said Greece continues to promote “groundless claims lacking any legal basis” through legislation adopted in 1994 and educational programs taught in schools nationwide.
The ministry said Greece was attempting to cover up “its own atrocities and war crimes” committed during the occupation of western Anatolia after the failed pursuit of the “Megali Idea,” referring to the expansionist vision that sought to unite former Byzantine territories under Greek rule.
Türkiye stressed that crimes committed by the Greek army during the occupation were documented in Allied investigation commission reports and recorded in Article 59 of the Lausanne Peace Treaty.
Calling on Greek authorities to stop “abusing history for political concerns,” Ankara urged Athens to remember massacres committed against Turks and other ethnic groups, beginning with the Tripolitsa massacre in 1821 and continuing during the Greek occupation of Izmir and western Anatolia after May 15, 1919.
The ministry also urged Greece to abandon rhetoric that fuels hostility and instead adopt a constructive approach aimed at improving bilateral ties through peace and cooperation.
The head of Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT), Ibrahim Kalın, met Syrian President Ahmad al‑Sharaa in Damascus on Monday as Türkiye and Syria continue efforts to strengthen coordination on regional developments and bilateral cooperation.
The meeting, held at the People’s Palace in the Syrian capital, was attended by Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and General Intelligence Director Hussein al-Salamah, according to Syrian officials.
Discussions focused on recent regional developments and ways to deepen cooperation and coordination between Ankara and Damascus amid ongoing diplomatic engagement between the two neighboring countries.
Kalın, a key figure in Türkiye-Syria relations, became the first senior Turkish official to visit Damascus under the new administration. On Dec. 12, the Turkish spymaster prayed at the historic Umayyad Mosque amid heavy security measures.
Türkiye’s Fidan to attend NATO foreign ministers meeting in Sweden
Prince William revels in Villa’s Europa League glory after 30 years
BREAKING NEWS | Sumud Fleet statement from Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan: We will bring our citizens to Türkiye with a private plane!
Türkiye’s Fidan to attend NATO foreign ministers meeting in Sweden
Prince William revels in Villa’s Europa League glory after 30 years
BREAKING NEWS | Sumud Fleet statement from Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan: We will bring our citizens to Türkiye with a private plane!
-
Economy3 days agoRyanair posts strong profit but warns Iran conflict clouds outlook
-
Economy2 days agoUK unemployment rate hits 5% as Mideast war clouds jobs market
-
Economy3 days agoStability in focus after Trump-Xi summit despite Iran war concerns
-
Politics2 days ago10 nations, including Türkiye, condemn Israeli attacks on Sumud Flotilla
-
Economy3 days agoTürkiye acting to minimize war-fueled market ‘stress’: Erdoğan
-
Politics3 days agoTürkiye codifies sphere of influence in Blue Homeland
-
Daily Agenda2 days agoGreat success from Turkish youth at the international science Olympics! They returned with 4 gold, 8 silver and 1 bronze medals
-
Daily Agenda2 days ago15 suspects were arrested in the CHP operation against Tepebaşı Municipality