02.03.2020 Ankara
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan received the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu and the accompanying NGO representatives at Ankara Esenboğa Airport. The delegation expressed their support message of, ‘we stand with our government and our armed forces’ to President Erdoğan; President Erdoğan thanked Hisarcıklıoğlu and NGO representatives for their unity and solidarity during this period when Turkey was fighting a historic fight at the Syrian borders, especially in Idlib.
Erdoğan
stated that the non-governmental organizations he received, from workers to
employers, public servants to farmers, tradesmen to industrialists, represented
all segments of the nation, “As I have always stated, the greatest strength of
Turkey is this unity, fraternity and solidarity. As long as we're together like
a fist, we're locked together like the bricks of a wall, and by the grace of
Allah, there's no power that can bring this country low.”
Reporting
that Neyrab Airport was rendered unusable yesterday, Erdoğan addressed the NGO representatives:
“Our
expectation from you is that you support this struggle with your efforts in
your own field. If it were not for how far Turkey has come in the defense
industry in the last 17 years, we would be trying to carry out such a fight in
much more difficult circumstances. Because depending on others to send weapons
and ammunition in order to fight would have left us empty handed like in the
past. That is what they did.”
- “We have domestic UAVs and UCAVs”
Stating
that Turkey is producing its own weapons and continuing to fight with them,
Erdoğan said:
“If
we are able carry out our operations without the need for anyone's assent,
support, help, this is because of our hard work and results we have achieved so
far. Now we have domestic UAVs, UCAVs, and with all this, we're conducting
operations with them. In order to look at our future more securely, we need to
continue our path by tightening our ranks with you, our military in the field,
trade, industry, agriculture, production. By working harder, producing more,
exporting more, providing more employment, you will earn more and more for our
country. I pray for the grace of Allah upon our martyrs. I hope for the rapid
recovery to our veterans. Our hope is to prevent further bloodshed by resolving
this fight as soon as possible in victory. For this reason, we are making use of
all diplomatic channels in addition to our fight in the field.”
President
Erdoğan, ended his speech by thanking the representatives of non-governmental
organizations for their support of Operation Spring Shield, for sharing the pain
of the martyrs, for confirming their unity and solidarity.