Yılmaz: “The TUSAŞ attack will increase our ambition and boost our motivation.”

The Deputy Chairman of the AK Party, Head of Local Governments, and Samsun MP Yusuf Ziya Yılmaz stated, “They are trying to make us pay the price for establishing a fully independent national defense industry in this geography, in these lands. The attack on TUSAŞ will increase our ambition and raise our motivation.”

The AK Party Central Headquarters Local Governments Presidency Experience Sharing Meeting was held under the chairmanship of Yusuf Ziya Yılmaz at the Ömer Halisdemir Multipurpose Hall of Samsun Metropolitan Municipality with the participation of the mayors of Samsun, Ordu, Trabzon, and Erzurum Metropolitan Municipalities. In the open part of the meeting attended by many party members and council members, Yılmaz made significant statements about the attack on TUSAŞ and the perception studies carried out on social media.

“They are trying to make us pay the price for establishing a fully independent national defense industry”

Yılmaz said, “Our joy of living was destroyed by the treacherous cowardly attack on Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ). Since yesterday, Turkey has been crying for our 5 martyrs. Their funerals were buried in Ankara yesterday. Our hearts are bleeding. Treacherous terrorists attacked a facility that can be considered the heart of Turkey. Of course, they know how important that facility is, which is the heart of Turkey’s fully independent national defense industry, and they aim to strike Turkey from there, from its heart. This shows that it hurts them very much. It proves how justified our emphasis on the need to establish our fully independent national defense industry, which we have been saying for years, is. It shows that it is a place that hurts them the most. Therefore, this will increase our ambition. This will raise our motivation regarding our struggle to establish a fully independent national defense industry. It is indeed a positive development that there was no interruption in working hours at TUSAŞ yesterday. Yesterday morning, as if nothing had happened, those heroes who said, ‘We are a soldier, our friends became martyrs. We will attend their funerals and then return to our work’ continued to work there. May God have mercy on those who lost their lives. We also have wounded people in hospitals. May God grant them healing. Life continues. In this geography, in these lands, they are trying to make us pay the price for establishing this fully independent national defense industry. If this were easy, it could have been done before. But as you can see, we see the justified reasons for the struggle to achieve independence and self-reliance in defense industry policies of our AK Party from this incident,” he said.

“The perception regarding stray animals has engulfed Turkey”

Yusuf Ziya Yılmaz expressed that a perception was created as if stray animals were being massacred, which occupied the public agenda for months, saying, “About three months ago, a perception was stirred up regarding stray animals, as if every day animals are being gathered and killed in the streets of Turkey. An image was produced that municipalities and the government are completely indifferent to the issue of stray animals. My dear friends, we established the Powerless Stray Animal Care Center in Samsun in 2001. We even built a cat town. We placed it at a distance where dogs would not disturb them. We built it with architecture that could be questioned as to what kind of clinic it is, with its equipment and facilities, back in 2001, 22-23 years ago. A narrative was inflated that no services are being provided regarding stray dogs in Turkey. For 2.5 months in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, discussions were held about what should be done regarding stray animals. Nothing emerged that was different from what we did in 2001. This means we had already done it. The Mayor of Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality couldn’t stand it during this period. He called me one day and said, ‘It seems as if we are doing nothing about this issue in Turkey.’ He asked, ‘Could you send a team to examine the facilities we built regarding stray animals in Kocaeli?’ I said, ‘There is no need to send. I know all that you have done, thank you.’ In summary, there was an incident regarding stray animals about 2.5 months ago. It swelled, creating an incredible perception that engulfed Turkey. Our agenda constantly shifted there. Turkey seemed to be a nation indifferent to stray animals, contributing to a negative perception abroad,” he stated.

“Psychological perception management is being introduced”

Yılmaz emphasized that many areas are being manipulated, leading people into fear, stating, “There were things related to the economy and doomsayers before this ongoing process. ‘The economy has collapsed, there is incredible price instability in these three-letter centers where we do our food shopping. Here, everyone raises prices every day as they wish,’ a narrative that shook Turkey for at least 15-20 days. Here, psychological perception management is being introduced. When one perception is introduced, the impact of the previous one decreases. In the ongoing process, something that started regarding food safety, about meatballs and such, swelled to such an extent that people, when going to restaurants, panicked and became unable to go there, wondering ‘how is the meat produced and eaten here?’. You all know everything in the ongoing time. If I repeat, it will seem like I’m part of that perception management. But you forget. Do you know why you forget? Because you remember the closest and the most recent one. They make you forget the previous one. They finish it, consume it. After that, they find another thing. There was the Diyarbakır incident. That ended. Now they are inflating an issue related to insecurity in health. Right? It seems as if they are running an incredible disinformation process related to health in all hospitals. In short, I am telling this for the following reason: Everyone is doing their job. They are busy creating an image as if nothing good is being done in the country or that what is being done is of low quality, along with such a negative perception. With God’s permission, we will produce and experience a process that provides the highest quality service to our country, and that will create the perceptions in people’s minds with the results of this service, together with you,” he expressed.

The meeting was also attended by Samsun Metropolitan Mayor Halit Doğan, Ordu Metropolitan Mayor Mehmet Hilmi Güler, Trabzon Metropolitan Mayor Ahmet Metin Genç, Erzurum Metropolitan Mayor Mehmet Sekmen, AK Party Provincial Chairman Mehmet Köse, district mayors, and representatives of non-governmental organizations.