In his speech at AK Party's Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting, which was held via videoconference, President and Chairman of AK Party, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, stated that Turkey's fight against coronavirus continued successfully, that it was on a positive path in terms of the number of new cases, the number of deaths and the number of patients under intensive care and on ventilators.
Stating that Turkey showed a positive divergence thanks to its health infrastructure and the strength of the social security system in a period when many countries became helpless and surrendered to the outbreak, Erdoğan continued as follows:
“Every week in our cabinet meeting, we review the measures we have taken in parallel with the success of the fight against the pandemic. We are taking steps that will make our people's lives easier for our new normalization period, especially within this framework, in accordance with the picture in our hands. We took the first decisions in this framework last week. Among these was the decision that, as of yesterday, some of the businesses were allowed to start their activities again. Although we witnessed some unwanted scenes in some places, we generally saw that by obeying the established rules our people resumed their businesses and their shopping.”
Recalling that new normalization decisions were made yesterday at the cabinet meeting, Erdoğan explained that the entry-exit ban for cities, which was previously abolished in 7 provinces, was expanded for 9 provinces, new steps were taken to facilitate people's lives, from allowing tea producers to go their tea fields for harvesting and to the notary offices to adopt the normal working system.
President Erdoğan noted, “In order to avoid any negativity on the 19th of May holiday following the end of the next weekend, we have introduced a curfew of 4 days between May 16-19. As I always underline that for a long time we are obliged to live in accordance with the principles of using masks, complying with the social distance, hygiene, not going out if not necessary, and avoiding crowds.”
Emphasizing that even if Turkey eradicated the outbreak, they were obliged to remain on the alert until the disease was eradicated worldwide, Erdoğan said, “We have to communicate this reality as AK Party, with our organization and with all of our people, and psychologically and effectively have to prepare our people for the coming period.”
"Our units working on specific segments should exert more efforts"
President Erdoğan said, “As a country, while we continue to fight on many fronts, from the pandemic to the fight against terrorism, from cross-border operations to economic attacks, unfortunately, we have to deal with the insidious tricks of the opposition.”
Indicating that the events that occurred during the period of the pandemic and the importance of their work in the field of health have shown how unfounded the slanders have been, Erdoğan said. “In our cross-border operations, a similar picture regarding our actions in the defense industry has emerged. In other areas, we should continue to explain obstinately to where we brought our country, and to where we want to take it. Our units working on specific segments of the society, especially our women and youth branches, should exert much more effort."
Noting that not only global, political, and economic relations but also the minds will enter the restructuring process after the pandemic, Erdoğan stated the following:
“It is inevitable that this period will also have reflections on our country. As AK Party, we need to prepare ourselves swiftly for this new period in the world and our country. We must appear before our nation in an equipped and prepared manner. By making our preparations in every realm, we must meet this period of discussion and transformation, which may begin in a few months, or perhaps a few years later, in the best way possible. Highly important duties fall on this committee here, namely you all, to make use of this coming historical opportunity.”