Turkey is the last independently flying flag in the region we live in. Do not let this flag fall again. If it falls, the nation will fall, the country will fall, all the oppressed will fall, history will go back to its old state, the opportunity we have obtained after a century will slide and our ability to remake history will disappear.
Like Egypt, Iraq and Ukraine, we will become one of the countries which were each swallowed by the regional chaos scenario. We will again be at a state struggling with tutelage, helplessness, destruction and impossibilities again.
This country had a single flag a hundred years ago, too. It was the last known independent flag, the last ground and last hope in the region which had been divided and disintegrated by the global coalition. The region fell when it fell, and all nations from the shores of the Atlantic to the Pacific fell, and were left all alone.
Hopelessness did not only swaddle Anatolia, but it also swaddled our own region, which was taught to us as Northern Africa, Southern Asia and the Middle East. No longer did we have any future, and we did not have the expectation to become a nation or to be independent.
We have reached these days with a hundred years of patience, determination and silence. We endured and did not raise our voice, secretly resisted and dreamt of the days when we would be waving that flag again, and the days when we would bring the region back to its feet again.
The Anatolian patience, which is the hundred year old patience quietly eroded the front which was formed with World War I and melted it away. It opened a door for us, drew a roadmap and gave us a breath of air. It brought us back to our senses, and made us realize ourselves, our country, honor and past.
We noticed our region and the hundred-year long captivity. We comprehended that we were not free or independent, that this was not our position and that we were a scheme which had been drawn following World War I. We saw that we were a scenario just like the Ba'athist Iraq, Ba'athist Syria and the monarchies in the region.
And we shook ourselves off, pulled ourselves together and planted the flag to the top again, while our eyes saw the region and we comprehended how generous our hearts are. This was a challenge. A challenge to ourselves, our minds, to the truths we supposed were real, and to the world.
We started a great walk, while the new world order was being designed, countries disintegrated, ethnic and sectarian conflict wreaking havoc on the region, and while the world was hoisting sail to new capitals, while our old pro-Atlantic masters were occupied with their own problems and while the monopoly of global power was broken.
This was our strongest voice since the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire's political authority. It was a stance, a will, and a new political language. The way our people lived in Anatolian villages and those who treaded the streets of Europe had both changed. The way they spoke, their thoughts and their perception of themselves and their country had changed. We had overcome the walls of fear, discovered the weak points of the countries we had previously feared, saw their weaknesses, and this had given us even more courage.
We are living in a different Turkey since the past decade. For the first time after a lost century, we are living in our own country, with our own state, nation and region. The same way all nations and countries fell when our flag fell, during this period all of those nations and countries had clung onto their hopes the same way we did. We were the country of the orphans, and we again became the hope of the orphans.
Nations lose struggles which they strive with great effort and through major decisions, as well as the gains they acquire, with instantaneous attitudes out of nowhere. They lose it with anger, hatred, personal ambitions and partisan conditioning. We will not be doomed to such improvidence again, will not make mistakes, and we will not sacrifice ourselves and our country.
Turkey is administered with a strong political and state mind for the first time. It acts with the reflexes of a major state for the first time. The state embraces the nation for the first time, proceeds with firm steps on the road of prosperity and security and embraces its own cultural identity for the first time. This is precisely the major challenge. Because it changes history, the power map and wipes out old scores. It balances the account of the status-quo which had been shaped after World War I.
Therefore, a front has been formed against us, similar to the one in World War I. The same addresses, circles and powers initiated a war adjusted to suppress Turkey again and bring it down to its knees.
We will not give up because such a front exists, nor will we fear or be afraid. We know that we have the strength to overcome this front for the first time and that we will not be ourselves, or be an independent country and normalize history to settle in our own basin unless we break this front.
The Gezi Park riots and the December 17 interventions were the attacks of the aforementioned front. They were schemes to re-design Turkey and pull it towards the controllable area. We resisted and got through the crises. New ones are next in line. There are new destruction plans and preparations, set for the post-election period. We see what types of preparations are made inside and outside.
A weak opposition, a weak country, a weak economy and a weak political will means we lose the war. It means that we will turn into Ukraine, Egypt and even Iraq. Take a look at the region, and see the destruction which proceeds a single step at a time, and the disintegration which proceeds from one country to another. This is the most comprehensive global plan of the 21st century and we are the only country which will disturb this equation. History has commissioned us with the same duty again, and this is providence.
We are the last flag again.
And if that flag falls for a second time, it means that we will lose another century.
This is why we call it the 'Last War of Independence'
On June 7, Turkey will vote for this struggle. We should be aware that we will be voting for Turkey on June 7, if we do not want to witness the old days, coalition governments, ambassadors who carry out inspections in the manner of a provincial governor, economic administrations which strip all the gains of our people with a single crisis project, and leaders who bow and scrape at the White House.
The great walk must continue, even with a single vote. It must not be forgotten that the single vote is as effective as the cannon balls shot to protect the privacy of these lands. Because we consider these elections to be the same as Turkey's fate. And we see this struggle as the last War of Independence.
We look at the campaign and see a full-blooded alliance against the new political struggle of Turkey: where the Turkish nationalists, Kurdish nationalists, the pro-coup circles of the past, terrorist organizations, the parallel organization and the Republican People's Party (CHP) are all lined up on the same side… All of them in a way are adjusted towards bringing down the AK Party government and confine Turkey to the borders of Anatolia again. The fight of “what kind of a Turkey will be formed" is happening under the image of democratic elections.
None of them have a single sentence which will bring the country a step further from where it is today. You look at their discourse, and see that there is nothing but the language of the old Turkey. What is the willpower that brings them under a single front, and who is it? Who brought all legal and illegal structures under the same roof in order to halt the great walk of this country?
And then there is something called the AK party resentfuls. Some of them are resentful for not being able to run as a candidate, while some are frustrated for not obtaining more, and yet others are resentful for not being able to obtain high positions and office. I pay attention and realize that they are not resentful because they lost, but because they could not obtain more than what they already had. In that case, this is not a country issue, nor a struggle for Turkey. The silent ones and those who struggle without any expectations stay where they are, and their feet are strong on the ground.
I don't know about them, but the country can lose what it accomplished in a decade, in fifteen years within two years. This is why I would like to remind that this issue goes beyond everything; that Turkey is beyond personal calculations, and that the struggle goes beyond our individual weaknesses and frailties. Those who forgot the pain of losing mistake not obtaining more for losing.
In this election, parties will not only be voted for, nor will a prime minister be elected and new economic and political cadres be determined. In this election, a decision will be made for Turkey's century-old struggle, the last War of Independence and the region will be voted as a whole, as well as the hopes of the orphans.
If there is such a front formed against the great walk of Turkey on the inside and the outside, that local Turkish front should never be weakened and should be strengthened even more.
This is why I call everybody to the ballot box. I call everybody to put their strength into the country so that they cannot bring it down to its knees again. I believe that there is an account despite you, despite us and all of us, and that account goes beyond your personal grudges, conflicts and calculations.
I am an unfaltering side of this particular struggle.
