PM Erdoğan appeals for ‘YES’ in national vote with teary eyes

The identical dates of the referendum and the coup are coincidental, although the irony is hard to ignore. Speaking at his party's parliamentary group meeting, Erdoğan, with a trembling voice, read out a letter from a young man who was executed for his political views by the Sept. 12 junta, struggling to hold back tears as he read on. Some in the AK Party rows, including Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç, were completely unable to hold back tears.

He continued, saying: “What I will tell you now is going to be a little different. I will bring to you a recent political history but a tragic political history. This will be dramatic, but I have to do this.”

Erdoğan spoke about the executions of Necdet Adalı, Mustafa Pehlivanoğlu and Erdal Eren -- who was a minor at 17 -- by the coup regime, saying, “Exactly 30 years after that, again on a Sept. 12, we will settle accounts with the mentality that led to young deaths and untimely goodbyes, that took 17-year-old kids to the gallows.” The prime minister read out a letter written by Pehlivanoğlu to his family before his execution and stanzas from the “Song of Dawn,” a poem by Nevzat Çelik written for Sept. 12 victim Adalı.

Prime Minister Erdoğan delivered a highly emotional speech yesterday in Parliament as he read out a letter from a young man who was executed for his political views by the Sept. 12 junta.

He recalled that Adalı, a 19-year-old high school student, had been arrested in 1977 on charges of committing murder. Erdoğan said Adalı was the leader of a political party's youth branch. “Adalı was so convinced that his innocence would come out, he did not even join his friends' attempt at Ulucanlar Prison to escape.

The presiding judge in the trial was also convinced of his innocence. He noted his reservations, but this was of no use. Adalı was executed by hanging at the age of 22 on Oct. 8, 1980,” he said.

Here he read out stanzas from the “Song of Dawn,” which became well known in Turkey and was immortalized in a song by protest singer Ahmet Kaya, who became very popular. He said Adalı was the first young person the Sept. 12 junta to have been killed, adding that although the real perpetrators were captured later on, Adalı would never come back.

Erdoğan then said: “The Sept. 12 junta, in their own words, wanted to kill a right-wing youth to balance things up after hanging a left-wing youth. Only a few hours after Adalı, a 22 year old, Mustafa Pehlivanoğlu, walked to the gallows.” Then he read out Pehlivanoğlu’s letter to his family, written shortly before his execution. He had to struggle to read the highly moving letter to the end. Referring to a line in the letter where Pehlivanoğlu says he wishes those responsible for his unjust execution would pay, Erdoğan said, “This was the day he spoke of,” referring to the date of the referendum. His words drew huge applause from the audience.

Erdoğan said the constitutional amendments were not a project that belonged to the AK Party, a single individual, a certain circle or anybody else, but said they are a project that would meet the demands for a long-needed transformation in Turkey, calling it a national project.

He appealed to all voters in the country, irrespective of how they voted in previous elections, to vote “yes” on the Sept. 12 referendum, saying this vote is not about political parties but about the country’s future.

Erdoğan said referenda are a democratic right frequently employed in advanced democracies. “Our noble nation will not be voting on the current government or the opposition’s policy implementations but on its own future,” he said, adding that the referendum was a democratic means and not a political one, saying voting “yes” would be choosing the path of democracy.

Eren was hanged despite being 17

Erdoğan also spoke about Eren, hanged at 17 to become an icon for socialists in Turkey. He recalled that Eren was hanged on Dec. 13, 1980, despite being under 18.

He also spoke of torture that nationalist leaders such as Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu had to endure in prisons such as Mamak. Erdoğan also read a poem here from Yazıcıoğlu, the late Grand Unity Party (BBP) leader who was killed in a helicopter crash last year, in this part of his speech. Erdoğan said Hüseyin Kurumahmutoğlu was killed on May 14, 1978, beaten to death while in the middle of morning prayer. He said another torture victim of the period was none other than his government’s culture and tourism minister, Ertuğrul Günay.

He listed the reasons the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) had not given a vote of confidence to the True Path Party-Social Democratic People’s Party (DYP-SHP) coalition in 1992, as put by MHP founder and then leader Alparslan Türkeş. “Türkeş explains [the reason for the vote of no confidence] saying: ‘They promised to change the Sept. 12 Constitution. Sept. 12 has victimized us, the Idealists [MHP nationalists] and caused us great pain. I wish Mamak Prison could speak and tell us [of the pain and torture]. I wish Metris and Bayrampaşa [prisons] could speak and tell of the lives that faded there.’ Diyarbakır Prison cannot speak, but some MHP administrators who did time there after Sept. 12, I wish they would speak honestly’.”

The MHP has been campaigning for “no” votes on the referendum.