We will get rid of the AKP

Erdem Gül
 
CHP General Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has set the target of starting the march to get rid of the AKP following today’s congress. Kılıçdaroğlu said, “We walked alongside the wall on the Justice March and we pressed up against the wall. Now, with this congress, we will pass over the wall. There remains nothing that the AKP can give this country apart from pessimism. We will get rid of the AKP.” Kılıçdaroğlu shared his final pre-congress messages with Cumhuriyet.
 
The democracy we crave
 
Our congress will drive home how important all the values are that have been destroyed by this government and that for this reason are craved. At our congress we will display the democracy we crave as Turkey, as society, as a people. Everyone will see in the congress hall what the craved-for democracy means. We will experience at our congress how wonderful democracy is, how great a need it is and how meaningful a human right it is.
 
Freedom of thought
 
And our congress will also give vent to the joy of the freedom of thought and the ability of people to express their thoughts without fear that we all need. We will show at our congress, too, how decisive we are over the matters of democracy, justice, human rights, thought and freedom of expression. We will decisively display our attachment to democracy, justice and the Republic.
 
Passing over the wall
 
We staged the Justice March. Our march was the march of all who thirst for justice and crave democracy. On that march, I said, “I am marching alongside the wall.” We pressed up against the wall with our march. We now have a new goal. We now need to pass over the wall. And this is one of the aims of our congress. The wall will be passed over. We will pass over the wall with our congress.
 
The 2019 march begins
 
We are entering a new period so as to pass over the wall. We are starting the 2019 march with this congress of ours. Going forward, a vital electoral process stands before Turkey. Our congress is an opportunity to complete preparations for this. We will stage this march along with, not just our party and party people, but whoever is on the side of democracy. This march is the march to get rid of the government that is destroying democracy, destroying justice, destroying the freedom of thought and has by now become a burden for this country.
 
We have no right to hopelessness
 
Nobody who is on the side of democracy, craves democracy and believes in democracy has the right to succumb to hopelessness and pessimism. They have no such entitlement, either. On the contrary, in order to contemplate the future with hope, we have a duty to fight. It is incumbent on all of us to reconstruct the democracy that has been lost. We will not bow to pressure.
 
AKP pessimism
 
There remains nothing that the AKP rule of sixteen years is capable of giving this country. The only thing that it has given and was able to give was pessimism and hopelessness. That facing us is a government with no remaining promise for the future. And its presence casts pessimism over the country. We face a government none of whose targets are met and which is taking the country backwards in full. The AKP now promises a country made lonely in the world. This congress of ours is the start of a process in which we, along with all CHP people and whoever wants democracy, justice and freedom, will dispel AKP pessimism. Let nobody have any doubt that we will succeed in ending AKP pessimism.
 
Atatürk’s courage
 
The founder of this country, the war hero Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, fought under the most adverse of conditions. He waged the War of Liberation under the most impossible of conditions and won. He tore up Sevres and brought Lausanne into existence. What enabled this to be done was decisiveness and courage. This is what we need to adopt as the example for us today. If we want democracy, justice and freedoms, we must be decisive and bold. If we want our children to live in a wonderful Turkey, we must be bold. Bold and decisive. We will not be afraid.