Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered his “Address to the Nation” speech after the Presidential Cabinet Meeting.
Stating that they have just completed the 25th meeting of the Cabinet, Erdoğan said that they held this meeting via teleconference due to the measures they took against the Covid-19 disease.
Stating that the ministers discussed issues such as health measures, food safety and public safety in detail, Erdoğan said that they have fully implemented health measures in line with the recommendations of the Scientific Committee established within the Ministry of Health since the first days of the outbreak.
“We can meet almost all our needs ourselves”
President Erdoğan continued his speech as follows:
“Our health infrastructure, in terms of personnel, medicines and supplies, as well as intensive care beds, is, thank God, much better than in other countries. From masks to diagnostic kits and some immune-boosting medicines, we are able to meet almost all our needs ourselves.
So far, we have distributed 24 million surgical masks, over 3 million N-95 masks, over one million protective overalls and 181 thousand protective goggles to our hospitals and other health units. We have the opportunity to further increase the production of these materials.”
Stating that in addition to strengthening the existing hospitals, they also rapidly put new hospitals into service, Erdoğan said, “Our City Hospitals, which are really very modern health facilities, especially our 600-bed Okmeydanı Hospital, which is of such standards, started to serve as of today. We had previously planned this place as a training and research hospital, but it has such a quality that we should quickly transform it into a city hospital. Today, it was opened as a city hospital.”
Reminding that they have recently put into service Kartal Hospital with a capacity of 1,150 beds, which is also a City Hospital, Erdoğan said that they plan to put İkitelli City Hospital into service in May with a capacity of 2,682 beds, 520 of which are intensive care.
Stating that they are nearing the end of the construction of the 1,000-bed Göztepe City Hospital, which will be one of the most modern hospitals in Turkey, and that they will put it into service in September, Erdoğan continued his words as follows:
“Thus, Turkey has further strengthened its already strong position in the health infrastructure. We have taken and implemented our measures earlier than many countries during the Covid-19 disease process. We are gradually putting additional measures into effect. We do not have any shortage of food. Since our country produces all basic foodstuffs itself, both our stocks and the functioning of our supply chains are at a level to meet our needs.
As for public security, we are not experiencing any significant problems as a result of the resilient attitude of our nation and the efforts of our security units. On this occasion, I would like to express my gratitude to all our health officials, security forces, tradesmen who ensure the delivery of food and necessities to our people, industrialists and workers who continue production.”
“One of the most important issues during the pandemic is to keep the health system alive”
Stating that Turkey is one of the countries closest to overcoming the spread of this disease compared to Europe and America, Erdoğan said that they see that citizens are more consciously following the measures every day.
Stating that one of the most important issues during the pandemic is to keep the health system afloat, Erdoğan said:
“The more we allocate the personnel and equipment of our health institutions to the fight against Covid-19, the more effectively we can cope with the epidemic. In addition, in such cases, health institutions can turn into epidemic centers. For this reason, I kindly ask our citizens not to go to the hospital except in non-emergency situations. By switching to distance education in schools, introducing the method of working from home in the public and private sectors, and paying special attention to our elderly, we have greatly reduced mobility on the streets. The suspension of activities in all places where people are collectively located also contributed significantly to the realization of our call to stay at home.”
“We exceeded 10 thousand tests per day”
President Erdoğan explained that they have recently limited intercity transportation by land, air and sea and said, “If necessary, we can put similar methods into effect in urban transportation.”
Stating that the number of daily tests exceeded 10 thousand, Erdoğan said:
“Every day, we transparently share with our nation our numbers of detected people, cases, deaths and discharges. We are determined to use every means to prevent the spread of the virus. Currently, 41 settlements in villages and neighborhoods across the country are under quarantine. The only way to prevent the spread of similar cases is for each of us to implement our own quarantine. Our most important sensitivity here is to ensure continuity in the supply of basic necessities and to ensure uninterrupted production to support exports.”
Emphasizing that Turkey is a country that has to continue production under all circumstances and conditions and keep its wheels turning, Erdoğan continued as follows:
“We will ensure that the companies that continue their production take the necessary measures to protect the health of their employees in the strictest way. We endeavor to meet the needs of our friends as well as ourselves. In this context, we have sent health and cleaning supplies to many countries in these difficult days. Finally, we are transferring a plane full of supplies to Spain, one of the countries most adversely affected by the pandemic, on Wednesday, God willing. Likewise, we have also delivered and are delivering a shipload of aid materials to Italy, which is also going through a troubled period, through the Red Crescent to meet these needs. There are other countries where we are sending the materials we produce ourselves.”
“No disease can stand in the way of the bright future ahead”
Stating that the stronger Turkey is, the more it will be able to extend a helping hand to its friends, Erdoğan said that all development agencies in Turkey will support innovative work to combat this disease.
Stating that they will take all necessary measures for health and safety and continue on their way in this direction, Erdoğan said, “Our institutions are currently working intensively to produce respiratory devices. At the same point, we are continuing such work on vaccines and our goal is to reach serious results by the end of the year.”
Emphasizing that the longer citizens who do not have a job or obligation keep themselves at home with voluntary quarantine, the shorter the process of life returning to normal will be, President Erdoğan said:
“Compliance with the rules of cleanliness and distance will make a very important contribution to the breaking chain of the disease. Hand in hand with our nation, with whom we have endured many hardships and fought many struggles together, we will hopefully overcome this plague with the help and grace of our Lord. As long as we follow the rules, take precautions and believe that we will succeed. Let’s not panic, but let’s never let caution go. No virus is stronger than our unity, togetherness and brotherhood. No disease can prevent the bright tomorrows ahead. No threat can deter us from our goals. Because we are Turkey. Because we are the Turkish Nation.”
Stating that our civilization and culture is based on solidarity, solidarity and sharing, Erdoğan noted that as the state, with the economic and social support packages announced, they have shown and continue to show that they stand by people from all walks of life.
Emphasizing that they have implemented many postponements and support arrangements for tradesmen, craftsmen, small and medium-sized enterprises and exporters in order to ensure the continuation of employment, Erdoğan stated that they postponed the withholding tax, VAT and premium payments of more than 2 million taxpayers amounting to 54 billion liras for 6 months.
Reminding that they also provided SMEs and other companies whose cash flow deteriorated to be granted an additional period of up to 12 months, up to 6 months grace period for their existing loans, Erdoğan continued as follows:
“We have provided all corporate and commercial firms, regardless of sector, with a 36-month term with a grace period of 6 months and an annual cost of 7.5 percent for working capital support. We have postponed the payments of our tradesmen for April, May and June without interest, and we have implemented a loan package with a term of up to 36 months at a cost of 4.5 percent. We provided additional liquidity to companies that pay their personnel salaries from public banks, provided that they do not reduce employment, up to the personnel expenses for the next 3 months. We increased the limit of the Credit Guarantee Fund to 50 thousand liras and its total capacity to 450 billion liras to meet 850 thousand credit requests. We extended the repayment of rediscount credits for another 90 days and made a resource of 50 billion liras available to our exporters. We provide cash assistance of one thousand liras each to 2 million households registered in our social assistance programs. We eased the conditions for short-time working allowance. We increased the lowest pension to 1,500 liras. We brought forward the Eid bonus for our pensioners. We expanded the minimum wage support. We increased the allowances of our social assistance and solidarity foundations. We refund the fees of students staying in higher education dormitories for the days they did not stay in the dormitory in March, and we do not charge them for April, May and June.”
“We do not cut students’ loan and scholarship payments”
President Erdoğan stated that they did not make any cuts in students’ loan and scholarship payments and that students can postpone their loan repayments for April, May and June without any additional cost.
Stating that 21,500 citizens coming from abroad are currently hosted in higher education dormitories in 41 provinces according to the 14-day quarantine rule, Erdoğan said, “We have introduced free internet up to 8 Gigabytes for distance learning students in primary and secondary education. We are making performance payments to our healthcare professionals, who are the heroes of the period we live in, at the highest ceiling with an additional support of 6 billion liras. We are also providing each of our healthcare professionals with one hundred Gigabytes of free internet quota via TÜRKSAT.”
“We are launching a National Solidarity Campaign”
Stating that they have paid almost half of the agricultural supports for 2020 so far to support farmers and that the self-sufficiency rate in the production of almost all agricultural products, especially cereals and vegetables, is over 100 percent, Erdoğan continued his words as follows:
“In this period, we have tripled the production of products such as pulses, pasta, cleaning materials and oil, which are in high demand. We have the opportunity to increase these capacities much more if necessary. In short, with every measure we have taken, we have shown that our state stands by its citizens. We know that our non-governmental organizations are also trying to support those in need within their means.
We are launching a ‘National Solidarity Campaign’ because we see that the state should take the lead in this regard. For this campaign, which we launched by saying ‘We are enough for us, Turkiyeem’, our Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services opened an aid account, the details of which are currently on the screen. Donations can also be made through the text message numbers that also appear on the screen. Our aim is to provide additional support to our low-income citizens who are victimized by the measures taken, especially those who live on a daily wage.”
Stating that citizens in need will be identified through the Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundations in every province and district and the aid will be offered to them, Erdoğan said, “If necessary, we will also engage our mukhtars’ offices and ensure that the money collected in the campaign reaches its destination in the most accurate way. In our previous meeting, some of our ministerial colleagues decided to donate their salaries of three or six months each to the campaign. Of course, some of our ministers also expressed much higher donation figures.”
“In total, our ministers and our friends accompanying the cabinet have donated 5 million 200 thousand liras. We invite all our deputies in the Parliament, the organizations of all our parties, especially the AK Party, all our mayors and bureaucrats to participate in the campaign.” President Erdoğan concluded his speech as follows:
“In this process, we expect the biggest contribution from our businessmen and philanthropists. Our citizens who plan to distribute their zakat during Ramadan do not need to wait for Ramadan, they can take their place in the charity race by participating in this campaign now. I wish that the donations made to our campaign will be accepted by the Almighty. As of today, there is 11 million dollars of support from our benefactors for this campaign. Inshallah, when we leave these troubled days behind, one of the most beautiful things we will remember will be this picture of unity, solidarity, brotherhood and solidarity. May God help us and help us. I present my love and respect to all of you. Peace be with you.”
Source: https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/koronavirus/cumhurbaskani-erdogan-biz-bize-yeteriz-turkiyem-kampanyasini-baslatiyoruz/1785164
