Governors from 81 provinces joined newly appointed Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi on Wednesday as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, fresh off a visit abroad, hosted the Governors’ Meeting at the Presidential Complex.
Before delivering awards to governors with outstanding accomplishments and after remarks underlining that the governors “embodied the state in the field,” Erdoğan urged caution to the highest public administrators in every province while conducting their work.
“You should not be drunk with power while serving people and should not seek any interest other than for the people you should be honored serving,” he said, adding that serving people should be their priority rather than “focusing on advancing your career.”
Erdoğan also pointed out that recent complaints against public officials were especially related to social media. “As social media platforms proliferated, a major portion of communication and information services (of public institutions) shifted there. Naturally, our institutions and officials utilize them more and more. Nevertheless, we occasionally witness the excess (on the part of officials) on social media, for the sake of gaining favor and interaction. The privacy of people is violated and we see people acting in contradiction to the seriousness that conducting the state’s work requires. These behaviors devolve into communication mishaps and crises. I believe you and people working under you will act sensibly in those matters,” he said.
“If administrators act arrogantly against people, they will lose favor,” Erdoğan added.
The president said they expected governors to come up with fast and efficient solutions to people’s problems and “win hearts.” “They have to act with maximum efficiency. This is actually what leadership takes. A successful governor means a good leader. Good leadership requires taking responsibilities and risks and staying away from referring matters they can solve locally to Ankara,” he underlined.
"The state, in Turkish tradition, does not merely refer to an administrative organization. It also embodies meanings such as power and compassion. Justice lies at the foundation of the nation’s millennia-old state tradition. In this sense, governance is intertwined with wisdom. One cannot ensure administration without establishing justice and goodness," he stated.
Erdoğan said the Turkish nation has never been without a state at any point in its history and has upheld the principle of “Ebed Müddet” or the eternal state, passing it on to future generations.
“Our national and spiritual values, our human and cultural heritage, and our vision of the past and the future are directly embedded in our philosophy of the state,” he said. “That is why, for us, the state does not merely signify an administrative structure. It also encompasses meanings such as power, prosperity, compassion and mercy.” He said justice forms the foundation of the centuries-old state tradition, with people at its center, and virtue and morality at its core.
“In this respect, governance is intertwined with wisdom,” Erdoğan said, citing Yusuf Kamil Pasha, who served in senior posts including grand vizier during the Ottoman Empire. Erdoğan quoted him as saying, “Government is inseparable from wisdom.”
“You cannot ensure administration without establishing justice and goodness. If you disregard people and exclude wisdom, you cannot secure peace and stability,” he said. “You must use the resources entrusted to you by our state with great diligence for the benefit of our people and our cities,” he also said.
