Here are the highlights from Erdoğan's speech: I hereby convey my greetings to my citizens in all districts and neighborhoods of Samsun. I feel fortunate to come to Samsun, the gate of the Black Sea, the torch and pioneer of our independence, with services, investments and good news. Here is the giant Samsun City Hospital. All that talk, no more. There is action, action. I would like to thank each and every one of you for your appreciation and for opening your hearts to us with love despite the heat.
As you know, we were in Rize yesterday and the day before. I bring you warm greetings from my brothers from Rize. There, we experienced the excitement of the opening of our completed works. We were proud to present projects and works with a total investment amount of 10 billion liras to the service of our nation in a single ceremony. Now we are in Samsun, the city of independence. We are opening our city hospital together with you.
I would like to say this once with all my sincerity. Young people, Samsun is our pride. Samsun is the apple of our eye. Our love. Our love. We have not been embarrassed by Samsun so far. We won't be from now on either. We don't make small talk like some people. We love Samsun with our soul. We do not leave this love in words, we demonstrate it with our works, our actions, and the giant projects we put into service, such as here today. We fulfill our historical duty towards Samsun by strengthening these features of Samsun, which is a city of civilization and culture, a port and logistics city, an agricultural and industrial city, and a transportation city where all roads meet, with the investments we have made over the last quarter century.
"SAMSUN WILL BE A HEALTH CITY"
My dear brothers and sisters, take a look. This is Samsun City Hospital. All that talk, no more. With the opening of our city hospital as of today, Samsun will add the title of health city to all these qualifications. Our Samsun City Hospital was built on an area of 234 thousand square meters, using 1,027 earthquake isolators. What does this mean? In other words, this place has all kinds of resistance against earthquakes. It has a bed capacity of 1,458, 230 intensive care beds, 40 operating rooms equipped with high technology, 320 outpatient clinics and an oral and dental health unit. In addition to all these, Samsun City Hospital will serve as the health base of our region with its parking lot for 2,066 vehicles.
"5,419 HEALTH WORKERS WILL WORK IN OUR HOSPITAL"
It's not over. Our hospital is equipped with the most modern devices, including 3 MRIs, 3 tomographs, 6 ultrasounds and 34 x-rays. 5,419 healthcare workers, including 548 specialist physicians, will work in Samsun City Hospital. Our hospital was designed with equipment that will provide the highest comfort not only to our citizens but also to its employees. I hope that this magnificent health facility, which makes everyone who sees it happy with its total investment of 17 billion liras, will bring good luck to Samsun. But it's not over. We also have expectations from our healthcare personnel who will work in our city hospital. What does this mean? From now on, my brother from Samsun will hopefully embrace my brothers from Samsun when they come through the door to our city hospital with all its staff and all its resources. And in this city hospital, there is nothing. I hope there is happiness here. I congratulate our institutions, contractor companies, and everyone from engineers to workers who contributed to the commissioning of our hospital.
I also want to express this. Our city hospital is just one of the health facilities we brought to Samsun during our governments. With our investments, we have made our city one of the important health centers of the Black Sea. In the last 25 years, we have built 27 new health facilities in Samsun with a capacity of 3,551 beds and 120 dental units. We put 22 new health facilities into service, from family health centers to healthy life centers, from 112 emergency health services stations to public health laboratories.
"WE APPOINTED 1510 NEW HEALTHCARE WORKERS IN SAMSUN IN THE LAST 2 YEARS"
We increased the number of specialist physicians by 4 times and the total number of physicians by 3 times. In the last two years, we appointed 1,510 new healthcare workers to our city. Currently, Samsun's total bed capacity has increased to 5,415. We are further strengthening Samsun's health infrastructure with new investments. So is it over? The construction of the 350-bed Atakum State Hospital and the 250-bed Tekkeköy State Hospital continues. We are building new public hospitals with 75 beds each in Alaçam and Ayvacık. We are approaching the end of the project process at the 350-bed İlkadım State Hospital. Hopefully, we will complete them gradually and put them into service.
"WE PUT AN END TO THE SCENES WHERE THOSE WHO HAVE NO MONEY ARE TAKEN HOSTAGE IN THE HOSPITAL"
Dear people of Samsun, my dear brothers and sisters, as you know, the city hospitals project was my dream. As a worker with SSK, this brother of yours has suffered a lot in the past, just like you. I, too, have personally experienced the disruptions in the healthcare system, just like my brothers and sisters who are over forty years old. If only old Turkey could speak the language, if only we had a time machine, if only we could show our young people what the situation of our hospitals was just twenty-five or thirty years ago. We all experienced those bad days together, when people who entered healthy turned out to be sick, where one medicine was available but the other was not available, where people had to wait in line for hours to get medicine or be examined, and where citizens were not treated as human beings. When we took office in 2002, we said, "Health comes first." We said, and we put health and education at the top of our priorities. We built hospitals and health centers all over our country. We have increased the number of healthcare devices, ambulances, doctors and nurses many times over. We put an end to the scenes where people who don't have money turn away from the door and those who don't have money are taken hostage in the hospital. We have established a health system throughout our country in which our citizens will be treated humanely, regardless of their income group or profession. Thanks to our 24-year investments, especially in our city hospitals, Türkiye has reached a prominent position in the world in this field.
Previously, our citizens would go abroad to receive health care. Now this situation has reversed. Every year, hundreds of thousands of foreign patients seek healing in Turkey. The opening of our city hospitals has a significant contribution to this. As of today, we have completed 27 city hospitals. These hospitals, which have a bed capacity of approximately 40 thousand, provide first-class service to all our citizens as modern health bases. Hopefully, we will complete our 13 city hospitals, which are under construction from Trabzon to Şanlıurfa, from Sakarya to Ordu. We also have 8 city hospitals whose projects are ongoing. With the completion of these, Türkiye will have 21 new city hospitals with a bed capacity of more than 26,000.
"IT'S GOOD WE DIDN'T LIE TO THE CRITICISMS"
My brothers, of course, I have to remind you of this bitter truth here. The most obvious example of front politics in our country based solely on opposition to the government is our city hospitals. Our nation's "May God bless you." Unfortunately, these hospitals, which he said, have been the target of the opposition's arrows of criticism since the first day. They said it was a waste. They said, "What is the need for these hospitals?" They said they were stabbing the health system. When they couldn't find anything, they criticized our hospitals for being big. So, what happened after all? None of his criticisms proved true. City hospitals, which they say are unnecessary, have undertaken very important missions, especially in our fight against the coronavirus epidemic, which is the health crisis of 100 years. Thank God, none of the scenes where people died in plain sight due to inadequate healthcare services have occurred in our country. We became one of the countries that managed those difficult days most easily with the extraordinary sacrifices of our healthcare professionals. Everyone understood how visionary, how accurate and how strategic an investment our city hospitals are. When we look back today, we say, "We are glad that we put these hospitals at the service of our nation." we say. "It's a good thing we didn't pay attention to the criticisms of those who oppose the service and the work." we say. We thank God for bringing these modern health facilities with all the facilities to Turkey in a timely manner.
In addition to city hospitals, we are expanding our health infrastructure with preventive health services, which are the first point of contact for our citizens. We are building 140 hospitals with a bed capacity of 36 thousand and more than 1,250 family health and wellness centers throughout our country. In other words, we are working hard to be worthy of the trust of our citizens who gave us duties, authorized us, and responsibilities at the ballot box. Hopefully, we will continue to work with love for all of Türkiye and the Turkish nation until our last breath.
"BOOK OF COUPS IN Türkiye HAS BEEN CLOSED"
My dear brothers and sisters, yesterday was the 46th anniversary of the September 12 coup, which was a black mark on our history of democracy. Exactly 46 years have passed since the will of the nation was usurped using street incidents and political instability as an excuse. No matter what our views or origins are, they have caused great pain to all of us as a nation. Supposedly, in the name of establishing justice, they sent many of our people from both the right and the left to the gallows. We lost our young saplings that were just in the prime of their lives. As a nation, we have lost our hopes and joy of life. The September 12 coup did not only cause deep wounds in the hearts of our nation. At the same time, it dealt heavy blows to Turkey's growth and development. Our country was condemned to economic backwardness, poverty and arbitrary rule by tutelaries for many years. The September 12 coup lies at the root of many problems that still consume our energy today, especially terrorism. Our nation responded to this bad trend on November 3, 2002 by saying "Enough. Both the say and the decision belong to the nation." He made a sound saying: Since then, all attempts against our democracy have failed. From terrorist acts to the Gezi uprising, from the December 17-25 coup attempt to the July 15 treason, the dirty hands that reached out to the will of the nation were broken. I would like you to know that the book of coups in Turkey is now closed. This nation will not allow it to be opened again. We showed our determination on this issue by ensuring that the perpetrators of September 12 and February 28 are held accountable to Turkish justice. Hopefully, from now on, we will never allow the will of the nation to be overshadowed. We will continue our struggle for democracy with determination, without bowing our heads. With the authority we receive from our people, we will take care of the nation's trust and protect this sacred trust at the cost of our lives when necessary. I pray that God will help us. With these thoughts, I hope that Samsun City Hospital will be beneficial to you and our nation again. Once again, I congratulate those who contributed to bringing this magnificent work to our city, I wish success to all of them, our doctors and healthcare personnel, and I entrust you to God. Thank you, live long, stay healthy.
