"The Will is Ours, Victory is Ours, July 15" panel was held in Ankara on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the July 15 coup attempt.
The panel, which was held at the Information Technologies and Communication Authority with the participation of the Minister of Family and Social Services Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş, was moderated by Deputy Minister Zafer Tarıkdaroğlu.
Tarıkdaroğlu stated that Türkiye passed one of the most severe tests in history on the night of July 15, and that the nation did not allow any treacherous attempt and did not recognize any will above the national will.
Emphasizing that what was targeted on the night of July 15 was not just buildings, institutions or authorities, but directly the will of the nation, Tarıkdaroğlu said that the coup attempt was aimed at democracy, the independence of the state and the future of the country.
Tarıkdaroğlu stated that the great spirit that extends from Malazgirt to Çanakkale, from the national struggle to the present, stood up again on the night of July 15, and said, "Our nation came to the streets with the call of our President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. This embrace cannot be considered independent of our history, without a doubt. Because the love of the homeland in these lands is the greatest legacy passed on from generation to generation." he said.
Emphasizing that July 15 was not a resistance that emerged overnight, and that it was one of the strongest manifestations of a thousand years of history and the consciousness of being a nation, Tarıkdaroğlu said, "We will continue to convey to the next generation how we will tell about July 15 and not let them forget it, with the activities we will do every day." he said.
"We are working as hard as we can to achieve the goals we have set."
Deputy Minister of Justice Sedat Ayyıldız also stated that there is great pride and deep sadness when looking at the past 10 years after July 15.
On the other hand, stating that their anger against the treacherous coup attempt is as fresh as the first day, Ayyıldız said, "There are two features that make July 15 different from other coups and memorandums. One of them is that the people took to the streets and showed resistance for the first time, and the other is that the junta and the coup plotters are held accountable before justice, which is also a first." he said.
Ayyıldız stated that the Turkish judiciary carried out a meticulous process after the coup and continued:
"As FETO-supporting judges and prosecutors did in the past in cases such as Ergenekon and Sledgehammer, everyone was not put in a sack and punished; great sensitivity was shown to distinguish the right from the wrong and the guilty from the innocent. To date, 704 thousand 967 people have been prosecuted throughout Turkey, and 363 thousand 117 people have been decided in the proceedings that passed from the investigation stage to the prosecution stage. Of these, 125 thousand 435 people were convicted and 104 thousand people were convicted. "Measures such as acquittal for 334 people, postponement of the announcement of the verdict or short-term judicial measures were implemented for 28 thousand 924 people. Everyone's situation was specially investigated, no action was taken out of spite or revenge, and our judges and prosecutors worked with the precision of a jeweler to distinguish the right from the wrong, in accordance with our thousand-year-old state tradition."
Sedat Ayyıldız underlined that in Türkiye, there is a security bureaucracy that fights within the law against all structures that take custody of the national will, a judicial organization that supports it, and a Grand National Assembly of Turkey that both of them rely on, and said, "Under the leadership of our President, 'The Century of Turkey will be the century of justice.' "We are working as hard as we can to achieve the goals we set out in the Judicial Reform Strategy Document." he said.
"The civil society movement wrote an epic on the night of July 15"
July 15 martyr Prof. Dr. İlhan Varank's older sister, Ayşe Varank Arslantürk, noted in her speech that July 15 is not just a leaf on the calendar, it is a fire that never goes out and a milestone in which the chain that was intended to be placed on the future of children was broken by the hands of the nation.
That night the nation said, "If there is no homeland, none of us exist." Stating that he acted with this thought, Arslantürk continued his words as follows:
"That night, my brother İlhan and hundreds of thousands of people who ran to the squares with him took to the streets, leaving everything and everyone they had behind. What brought them to the streets was not just a reflex. It was the love of independence and the sense of belonging inherent in the yeast of these lands. At this point, we encountered the true meaning of civil society and being a nation. That night, we saw that civil society is not just about signs, associations, foundations. Civil society is actually the nation itself. Whenever the state and the nation are in trouble, there is no hierarchy. "Civil society is the reflex of coming together without waiting or considering any interest. Türkiye's largest, most unprogrammed and yet most organized civil society movement wrote an epic in the streets and squares on the night of July 15."
Arslantürk said that after the July 15 coup attempt, the civil society was given the responsibility of building social awareness that will not allow any tutelage center, illegal structure or treacherous network to mortgage the will of the nation in these lands again.
The panel was attended by KTO Karatay University Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences Dean Prof. Dr. Abdullah Topcuoğlu, journalist Nedim Şener and businessman Mehmet Ayaz also attended.
After the speeches, Minister Göktaş presented gifts to the panelists.