İBB President Ekrem İmamoğlu addressed the citizens at Kirazlı Metro Station Square in Bağcılar today. Imamoglu said:
Let’s dream a little. Let’s imagine a Turkey where we don’t want to fight and we never fight. Brotherly, in peace, the whole country has become one heart, we live together. We worry about each other’s problems. We are happy with each other’s joy. We are not separate. We love each other very much. We have become one as a nation. The economy isn’t turning upside down. The economy has risen in the hands of decent and qualified people. There is a Turkey that competes with the world not fake, not made up, but really. Let’s continue our dream. There is a Turkey where the official mouths of the country do not declare its citizens ‘terrorists’ just because they voted for another party. Let’s imagine this. There is a very beautiful and powerful country with its differences, beautiful people, and the colors of its beautiful nation. If we are like this, I ask you, who can keep this nation with our bright young people, these beautiful people? No one can hold it. Who can stand in front of us in employment, production and development? No one can stand before us. Are we ready to make this dream come true together?
“FOUR YEARS AGO, YOU ALL SAY ‘STOP’ TO THOSE WHO TREATED ISTANBUL”
We are on the eve of a historic election. We have two options before us. Either we will vote for change and we will save the country from this swamp, economic collapse, unemployment, poverty and injustice together, or we will watch our heavenly homeland, this beautiful nation, unfortunately drift from place to place in a whirlpool. We have absolute confidence in you. We know that you will not be a spectator to the course of this country. Look, remember four years ago. You all together said ‘stop’ to that bad course in Istanbul, to those who betrayed Istanbul, to those who turned Istanbul upside down for the sake of profit, to those who pulled here and there. You said ‘stop’ and you stopped. You have seen that the rulers of this city for a quarter of a century have become incapable of doing business. You wanted change. You said, ‘You can’t walk with them’. For us, remember, what lies he told you. What did they say? They said, ‘If this man comes, they will cut your social benefits’. Is it true? They said this both for Istanbul and for our other cities. So what did this brother of yours do? We increased the social assistance to 5 times when the economic difficulties were very great. I wish they would not impoverish the country, if only they would not make the country worse, so that we would not contribute to poverty. But they wrecked the economy.
“Since we took office, we have done what they said, ‘you can’t’, one by one”
Look, since we took office four years ago, we have done what they said, ‘You can’t’, one by one. Now they are doing the same scribbling again. What do they say? They say ‘You can’t’ again. We’ll do it like honey bro, we’ll make it like honey. We will raise this nation. Remember, what did we say? We said, ‘We will provide free transportation to mothers with children between the ages of 0-4’. He toured the squares one by one, Mr. President, like a candidate, toured all of Istanbul. What did he say? He said to me, ‘Who are you giving your money to? What did I say too? I said, ‘I give the nation’s money to the nation’. Just as we provided free transportation to mothers with children between the ages of 0-4 in Istanbul, we will continue to do so in the future. If we have found employment for nearly 110,000 people through employment offices, we will do so again. If we, as Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, have opened 11 student dormitories, we will do so. What did we do that they said ‘can’t do’? We set out to create fair opportunities for our children. Today, we now have kindergartens with almost 6,000 students. In Bağcılar, we, as IMM, carried out an intense work within four years without saying, “It belongs to that party, it belongs to this party.” We are now coming from a very special opening in Bağcılar. Now we have opened a very nice student dormitory, with a capacity of 511 students. We named it after Cüneyt Arkın, whom we all love, may God have mercy on him. It has everything in it.
“WHAT THINGS CANNOT DO IN 10-15 YEARS, THIS BROTHER WILL DO WITH YOU IN 4 YEARS”
You will see that what they could not do in 10-15 years, this brother will do with you and his team in four years. We do not follow political views. We do not look at whether the citizen is this, this, that, that, or that. We are on duty to serve you. Only for your benefit; beautiful girls, handsome boys, we work for you. All officials of the country should be like this. You, as citizens, will say to state officials, ‘Since I chose you, you are our servant’. Yes, we are on duty for him. I saw our mother, I saw it. You’ll let her in and I’ll kiss her hands. If my citizen thinks, ‘I have no money, I have nothing to put in front of my child for breakfast’ if he is going to buy bread, it is the fault of those who run the country, brother. Never hesitate to say this. Never hesitate to change this. O my citizen, you have the word. You have the decision-making power. Never be afraid of change for the future of our children and youth. Everyone will surely be determined. Do we have an agreement?
“GIVE VOTES TO MR. KEMAL KILIÇDAROĞLU, LET THIS WORK”
These people have vomited all the evil in their tongues for the last 1-1.5 months. They called us ‘terrorists’. They called those who did not vote for them ‘terrorists’. For God’s sake, does the president of a country show his nation a fabricated video with a montage, a conspiracy? Since you realized that it was a montage, you were deceived again, go out and apologize to the people. Come out and say ‘I posted a fake video’. He doesn’t say it either. Apologizing is a virtue. They have done so much damage to society. But this brother promises you. Look, we will never, ever use bad language. Let me be clear to all of you; with his mastery, with his heart that does not separate this nation from each other; Vote for our presidential candidate, Mr. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who is the reason why the Nation Alliance has come to this day with the struggle for rights, law and justice. Let this work be over. This new term, this is the process in which we will vote, is not just the process of changing a president. This process is an election in which that bad regime, that system they invented, will be thrown away. We’re going to trash that system. The system of the nation, the system of the Republic, this system in which sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the nation will come. We will all vote for Mr. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu for the rights of women, for the hopes of the youth, for the future of our children, for the beautiful future of our nation.
“THEY CAN’T EVEN GAVE THE MOST BASIC EXAM, THE HUMANITY EXAM”
They could not even pass the most basic test, the test of humanity. They are trying to provoke the nation against us. We do not give up. I see some of our people being deceived. They put evil in their hearts. Look, we’ll heal them too. They are our people too. I am not angry with our citizens. I am angry at this system and that handful of people who made them this way. Our account is with them. Therefore, no matter what they try to deceive our nation, whatever they do, it is not in our book to lie or slander. There is no partisanship in our book. There is no discrimination in our book. There is being human in our book, human. There is respect for people. Citizens are respected. We will never be one of those who do not worry about the problems of the citizens. We will use the nation’s resources for you, not for a handful of people. We will use it for the people. This is the requirement of offices and positions. May 28 will be the day when citizens cut the tickets of those who do not fulfill their duties. May 28 will be the day when Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, seeking solutions to the problems of all segments of society, set out to bring peace to the country. On May 28, you will start the days that will make your life beautiful. On May 28, give way to those who will fix the economy. Vote for tomorrow, on May 28, when everything will be fine.