Erdoğan's Speech

Amid high expectations over the speech that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would deliver at his Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) fourth grand congress, Erdoğan gave a two-and-a-half-hour-long address in which he focused on a wide range of issues such as his party's achievements over the past 10 years, the Kurdish problem and the new constitution. According to many, the prime minister fell below expectations and failed to convey strong messages on the fight against terrorism in particular, disappointing those who were hoping to hear new things from him.



Sabah's Mahmut Övür was one of those who found Erdoğan's speech disappointing, saying: "The prime minister enthusiastically talked about investments, justice, the new constitution, the fight against coups, brotherhood, our common history and common future. He made important assessments, but he failed to meet expectations. Everyone was expecting Erdoğan to say new things about ending terrorism and solving the Kurdish problem." According to Övür, Erdoğan's approach -- "Our biggest tool for 2023 is our brotherhood" -- also failed to meet expectations, but a booklet titled "AK Party's new roadmap," which was given to journalists after Erdoğan's speech, helped to ease some of the disappointment as it includes 63 articles, most of which aim to resolve the Kurdish problem. "The right to defend oneself in court in one's mother tongue, access to public services in one's mother tongue, the establishment of an equality commission against discrimination; it would be sufficient if these articles were to be put into effect," Övür said.



Bugün's Gülay Göktürk was also of the view that Erdoğan's congress speech fell below expectations and included nothing new. In this regard, she criticized the media outlets that labeled Erdoğan's speech as "historic." "Erdoğan's was not a historic speech. Forget about historic, it was not even a significant speech. It included poems, touched people's emotions and made many shed tears, but there was nothing in Erdoğan's speech that had not been said before," she added. Like Övür, Göktürk also felt that the AK Party roadmap booklet deserved more attention than Erdoğan's speech as it includes pledges for some important reforms.



Milliyet's Semih İdiz was also critical of Erdoğan's speech and found it strange that the prime minister did not say a single word in his address about Turkey's EU aspirations and that only a small paragraph was allocated to the EU goal in the booklet which listed the AK Party's targets for 2023.



FATMA DİŞLİ ZIBAK (Cihan/Today's Zaman)