President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan noted that the importance of Turkey’s achievements in healthcare, in addition to other areas, was better understood during the coronavirus pandemic, saying “Likewise, the pandemic has revealed how troubled some states, which are highly praised by some circles in our country, are in this field.”
During his speech at the Opening Ceremony of the Göztepe Prof. Süleyman Yalçın City Hospital, President Erdoğan congratulated those who contributed to the construction of the hospital.
Wishing success for the healthcare professionals who would serve at the hospital, Erdoğan said they remembered with mercy Prof. Dr. Süleyman Yalçın, after whom the hospital in Göztepe was named.
Stating that Prof. Dr. Süleyman Yalçın was both a very important scientist in the field of medicine and a man with a cause, who made valuable contributions to the country’s intellectual life, Erdoğan said the following:
“From the 1950s until the last years of his life, our professor worked for his country, nation, and cause, writing intellectual articles, giving conferences and taking charges in non-governmental organizations. Our professor will always live in our hearts thanks to his struggle against those who seek to destroy Turkey and our nation’s values, weakening its ties with history and undermining its culture. We tried to display our commitment to our professor, whom we laid to rest four years ago, by keeping his name alive on such a work. Once again, I wish Allah’s mercy upon him and patience to his relatives who are among us.”
“Many healthcare institutions have been put into service”
Emphasizing that it was quite painfully witnessed during this period that wealth in financial terms was not sufficient to guarantee social justice and equality, Erdoğan continued his speech as follows:
“Turkey has confronted the pandemic with 40 thousand intensive care beds, bed capacity of 246 thousand, 1213 computed tomography machines, more than 4 thousand treatment centres, and more importantly with an army of 1 million 100 thousand healthcare professionals. In addition to these, we have put into service many healthcare institutions during the pandemic. Among these works are, Prof. Murat Dilmener and Prof. Feriha Öz Emergency Hospitals on both sides of Istanbul with 1006 beds each, Başakşehir Çam and Sakura City Hospital with a bed capacity of 2 thousand 682, Okmeydanı Prof. Cemil Taşcıoğlu City Hospital with a bed capacity of 535, Kartal Dr. Lütfi Kırdar City Hospital with a bed capacity of 1105 in the first phase that has been put into service, Marmara University Prof. Asaf Ataseven Hospital with a bed capacity of 600, Konya City Hospital with a bed capacity of 838 in the first phase that has been put into service and a total of 1250 beds, Erzurum City Hospital, which has a bed capacity of 1300, and Hadımköy Dr. Niyazi Kurtulmuş Hospital, the heirloom of Sultan Abdulhamid, which we have restored and put into service again. Today, with the opening of Göztepe Prof. Süleyman Yalçın City Hospital, which has a capacity of 758 beds, we have put in service 16 city hospitals across the country. The second phase of our hospital will serve with a capacity of 352 beds.”
Expressing that all of these hospitals, which were specially built with isolators against earthquakes, would firmly remain standing against any danger the country might face in the future, Erdoğan said, “In addition to these, many other healthcare institutions in various provinces and districts have been put into the service of our nation.”
Referring to the coronavirus pandemic, Erdoğan said that, thanks to the strong healthcare infrastructure established, the bottlenecks that were seen in many places, including developed countries, were prevented.
Stating, “Despite the increasing number of cases and intensive care patients in the recent period, our healthcare system is still upstanding,” Erdoğan called on the citizens to follow the rules of “HMD”, meaning “hygiene”, “mask”, and “distance”.
Noting that, unfortunately, science had not yet developed an ultimate solution to prevent the virus from spreading, Erdoğan continued his remarks as follows:
“We hope that the vaccine trials will produce a concrete outcome as soon as possible.”
Emphasizing that it was absolutely necessary to act in accordance with the rules determined by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Interior in public places and events, Erdoğan continued as follows:
“It is important for Turkey to overcome this period with minimal damage not only for keeping healthy but also for achieving our goals. For our country not to stumble over molehills, we must overcome the pandemic together. We must achieve this together.”
Stating that healthcare professionals, nurses, and all worked day and night at the cost of their lives, but citizens also had to keep up with these efforts, Erdoğan said, “We can only make it up to the people who work devotedly, especially our healthcare professionals, by acting responsibly.”
“Our achievements for the country are the infrastructure of the new era”
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that the political and economic status quo that had dominated the world for a long time was falling apart in all aspects and that the footsteps of a new era were heard louder by the day for all countries and societies.
Expressing that they were determined to bring the country to its deserved position in that new era, Erdoğan emphasized that their achievements for the country over the last 18 years in every field, from education to healthcare, from transportation to energy, from industry to agriculture, from defence to social aids, were the infrastructure of the new era.
Indicating that Turkey wasted its time and energy in the past because of political instabilities, civil unrest, many internal and external insidious attacks, but they would allow it to fall into the same trap again, President Erdoğan noted the following:
“We will continue to exert every possible effort to strengthen our nation by preserving its unity, solidarity, and brotherhood. We will continue to work day and night for our state to attain the power for our goals and dreams in every field. We are determined to make our country rank among the top 10 states in the world.”
“We say that Turkey is ready for all kinds of allocation as long as it is fair”
President Erdoğan stated that each attack and each crisis Turkey had faced better revealed the significance of the position Turkey achieved in the fields of production, trade, technology, export, defence industry, and basic services.
Noting that at the moment there was a Turkey, confident, aware of its potential, seeing the real power and the range of movement of its counterpart, and capable of converting the support behind it into actual results, Erdoğan continued as follows:
“Of course, our counterparts are also well-aware of these truths. Panic and fear lie behind the unreasonable alliances built up against our country and attitudes not respecting the rights, law, and tolerance. However, we, on every platform, at every meeting, and in every message, express that Turkey is ready for all kinds of allocation as long as it is fair. We are sincere in this message. The problem is that our counterparts disregard our rights. The problem is that they try to position themselves above us. We hope it will not be too late when they realize that there is no power to stand against a nation that sees the struggle and the possible martyrdom at the end as the highest rank.”
In his speech at the opening ceremony of Göztepe Prof. Süleyman Yalçın City Hospital, Erdoğan congratulated everyone who contributed to bringing the hospital to Istanbul and said that he hoped it would be auspicious for the country and nation.
Then, Erdoğan connected to the paediatric surgery clinic of the hospital online and received information from the officials about the hospital.
In his second live meeting, President Erdoğan received information about the hospital, the operations and training they carried out there, from Prof. Oğuz Şükrü Poyanlı, Prof. Korhan Özkan, Assoc. Prof. Mehmet Fatih Korkmaz from the inpatient service of Göztepe Prof. Süleyman Yalçın City Hospital where ten-year-old Ünal Çalışkan is treated.
Assoc. Prof. Mehmet Fatih Korkmaz said that, as the best indicator of being a social state, it is a very proud development for the country and a great achievement of becoming a social state that surgeries, which are at a highly extreme academic level, can be performed without any difficulty and comfortably.
In his third live meeting, President Erdoğan received information from Administrative and Education Officer of Urology Clinic Prof. Asıf Yıldırım and General Surgery Training Supervisor Prof. Orhan Alimoğlu in the operating room.
After the short briefing, Erdoğan said, “We built these hospitals with the support of our nation and of course all the hospitals we built are in the service of our nation.”
Following Erdoğan’s speech, Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca, AK Party Deputy Chairmen, Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya, AK Party deputies, AK Party Provincial Head of Istanbul Bayram Şenocak, Taşyapı Chairman of the Board Emrullah Turanlı, Rector of Istanbul Medeniyet University Prof. Gülfettin Çelik, Chief Physician Prof Gürhan Baş of Göztepe Prof. Süleyman Yalçın City Hospital inaugurated the hospital by cutting the ribbon.
After the inauguration, President Erdoğan had a souvenir photo taken with the medical personnel working at the hospital in memory of the day.
Erdoğan visited the departments of the hospital and made observations during the program.