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.
