Erdoğan says AKP embraces entire nation on way to 2023 elections

ADANA

In the “critical period” leading up to the 2023 elections, his party will embrace the entire 85 million people of Turkey and “walk shoulder to shoulder into the future,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on May 21.

“We do not have any children to be sacrificed to the politics of fighting, nor to be handed over to the accounts of global powers,” he said, speaking in the southern province of Adana.

Erdoğan addressed the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) “A Youth Feast” event.

“There is no provocation, or dragging the youth to the streets in our politics. There is no way to make the nation hostile or polarized. We are members of a political tradition that emphasizes love, tolerance, brotherhood and embrace, rather than inciting hatred, anger and enmity,” Erdoğan stated.

“We are on the eve of our goals for 2023, which we have dedicated to the centennial of the Turkish Republic,” the president stated.

“Now, we are mobilizing all our strength and energy for our youth to achieve the vision for 2053, which we have dedicated to the 600th anniversary of the conquest. And you will inshallah build the infrastructure of the vision for 2071 for future generations,” he said, adding that thus Turkey would enter the next century as one of the leading countries that have a say in the world, and perhaps in space.

“We build up all our hopes and set all our goals with our youth. We create all our visions for our youth and make all our preparations accordingly,” the president said.

The youth will make Turkey reach its goals he said and noted, “You are the youth who will seek and find the truths in their own historical and cultural treasure, not what is propagated, given or imposed.”

The AKP has set specific goals and targets that include major improvements in the economy, energy, healthcare and transportation for 2023, which marks the centenary of the Republic of Turkey, and 2053, which will mark the 600th anniversary of the conquest of Istanbul.

Also, the next presidential and parliament elections are scheduled for 2023.