President Erdoğan met with young people in Samsun

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with young people within the scope of the Samsun program.

Highlights from President Erdoğan's statements:

During the difficult period when our geography was struggling with wars and conflicts, we kept our nation away from these dangers. We brought historical successes and victories to our country. Tomorrow, you will move into Türkiye's wheelhouse. I believe that you will bring Türkiye to the best place.

We have always walked with young people in politics. We paved the way for young people, and we will continue to be friends with young people. Remember, putting young people at the center of politics is a matter of will. We said so and we did what was necessary. What did we do? We paved the way for young people in politics by lowering the voting age from 30 to 18. We provided all kinds of support to young people from the private sector to education and sports, from public administration to culture, arts and civil society. How can we win another young person? We stood by you at every opportunity, asking how we could include one more of our young people in this nation's independence march.

The future of young people was wasted on September 12. Our whole goal is to ensure that those dark days never happen again.

TERRORISM-FREE Türkiye

There is no such thing as terrorism anymore in Southeastern and Eastern Anatolia. Now my citizens in the East and Southeast can easily move around and live in their pastures. And now the goal is to bring a peaceful atmosphere to the wider region in the Southeast and East.

DEFENSE PACT IN MECCA

We said and continue to say 'The world is bigger than 5'. We said one more thing. How is it possible? There are serious problems not only in the Strait of Hormuz, but also in many places in the Gulf. And where are the places bottlenecked by these problems? Islamic world. And we, as Turkey, hope to overcome these problems experienced by the Islamic world as soon as possible, and in order to overcome this, Türkiye has now put its weight in the region, and we will do so. We cannot take the job lightly. Because there are many expectations from Türkiye. Remember, why did we take the step regarding the defense pact in Riyadh and Mecca? Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Türkiye came together and took a step. The step we are taking is for these three countries to come together and hopefully give a signal to the Islamic world with this step we have taken. There are good developments. We will achieve this too.

“THE COUPIST MENTALITIES EATED THE YOUTH OF THAT PERIOD”

By saying 'one from the right, one from the left', unfortunately, these coup mentalities fed the young people of that period in this way. We neither wanted to see nor experience these, but unfortunately we saw and experienced them. We hope that the same situation will not happen in the future. Let everyone continue on their path and let the young people prepare the Turkey of the future with their works and all their assets, and let us be proud of them.

“WE GAVE MKE WEAPONS TO NATO LEADERS”

We gave these weapons as gifts to the leaders who came with Makine Kimya's products. Why? We are Turkey. We wanted to present our works to them. They were satisfied, they were happy. And of course, we were also happy to achieve this happiness and thank God, we made the leaders' summit a success. Now, of course, we will realize this at COP 31, hopefully in Antalya. Of course, preparations etc. are being made. Hopefully Antalya will be the peak place in this business.

"THERE ARE 10 GRAND GRANDCHILDREN, IT IS AN OTHER HAPPINESS"

After a student from Çorum Hitit University took the floor, President Erdoğan reminded the match played between Çorum Football Club and Samsunspor and said, "But look at me, you were shameful last night. What did you do against Samsun last night? Did they beat Samsunspor 5-1? Çorum beat Samsunspor 5-1 last night, right? Where is it? In Samsun. The president just told the situation." he said.

When the student asked President Erdoğan about what he saw buying gifts for his grandchildren in a toy store and whether his grandchildren could easily convince him, Erdoğan gave the following answer:

"Shouldn't I buy it? Even last night, he said to me on the phone, 'Grandpa, you thought you were going to buy me a monster toy?' Grandchildren are loved beyond being persuaded. And they are loved so much... They are now coming to ice cream, they are like honey fingers. And I took it from there that day. 'Asim, which one are you buying?' 'This.' 'Do you like it?' 'I like.' And of course he doesn't like it easily. And of course, he left there happily that day, which also made me happy as a grandfather. But he doesn't forget anything. Look, even last night he said to me on the phone, 'Grandpa, will you take me again?' 'I'll take it.' I hope my Lord will make you have grandchildren too. Alhamdulillah, the grandchildren have reached 10. There are 10 grandchildren. And a different happiness."

Emre, a disabled young man from Samsun, said "welcome" to President Erdoğan and said that a while ago, while he was walking on the road with his mother, Erdoğan stopped his bus and asked him if he had any requests.

Thereupon, President Erdoğan said, "Emre, how can I account for this to God if I did not get off the bus now? You know, I did not recognize you for the first time on this trip. I have seen you every time I came to Samsun for years." He responded.

Emre said, "Walk behind this leader. Take the burden off this leader's shoulders and pray for this leader morning and evening. That's what I do. I invite all of you to do the same. May God help you." he said.

President Erdoğan said, "May God help us all together. I hope God will not leave us alone." he said.

PRESIDENT ERDOĞAN ACCOMPANYED TURKEY

Erdoğan commemorated former Samsun Metropolitan Municipality Mayor and former MP Mustafa Demir, who passed away recently, and asked the participants to recite Fatiha for Demir's soul.

In the program, images showing the questions asked to young people in Samsun and the answers given were also shown.

President Erdoğan accompanied the folk songs "Uzun İnce Bir Yoldadım" and "Çayeli'nden Öteye" sung by musician Resul Dindar, who took part in the program.

The program ended with AK Party Youth Branch Chairman Yusuf İbiş presenting President Erdoğan with a digital painting themed "From Independence to Future".