Cities can and will celebrate Independence Day

"The sun does not muddy the slime!" is a beautiful proverb. It is a saying that tells us in the simplest way that the truth cannot be covered up by distorting the issues.

Now someone says "cities do not have liberation days". Someone else says, "I wish the Greeks had been victorious". There must be others who say other things too.

Such discourses will neither be the first nor the last. The important thing is that they themselves know and closely feel that our struggle with these perverted words and those with these thoughts will continue. Of course, we will not leave the field empty for this perverted mentality.

Yes, by continuing the struggle, one reaches the destination, history has not written about those who reached their destination without struggling. Neither will it ever be written!

The difference between an Abdal and a fool tells us this very well. Abdal: is defined as a person who evolves, who is open to innovation and improves himself. A fool is a human character who does not learn from his mistakes, who constantly repeats the mistakes he made in the past. That is why people who fail to evolve will one day surely, surely fall. They will undoubtedly leave destruction in their wake.

I believe it would be useful to look at Izmir's centennial celebrations from this perspective. Even though a century has passed, it is clear that the mentality of a century ago has not changed. However, we reach this information not with information from the Neolithic Age, but in the light of written documents and information, based on historical documents indicating place and time.

Now look at what history says to those who stomp on this issue. It will be enough for those who do not believe to look at the newspapers of that day. Yes, both the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey are ours. Both are the continuation of each other. But history is ruthless and the truth is always in front of us. Of course we cannot be enemies of the Ottoman Empire.

But before Sakarya, leaflets were dropped by Greek airplanes on behalf of the Society for the Advancement of Islam, of which İskilipli was the president, against the Kuva-yı Milliye. It was emphasized in these leaflets that Mustafa Kemal and his friends were supposedly traitors. Declarations that considered the Greeks as friends were dropped. The treachery of the British Society of the British Correspondents, of which the British priest Robert Frew, Rıza Tevfik, Ali Kemal, Said Molla and Damat Ferid were also members, is evident. On May 24, 1920, Mustafa Kemal, Ali Fuat Pasha, Halide Edip, Kara Vasıf and others who took part in the national struggle were declared "criminals" by them. A death warrant was issued with Vahdeddin's signature with the claim that Mustafa Kemal and his friends came together under the name of "kuva-yı milliye" and created sedition and mischief in the Ottoman lands, forcibly collected money from the people, recruited soldiers and destroyed the country. Each and every one of us must know these things.

Therefore, the liberation of Izmir, which was cleared of the Greeks on September 9th, is not only the liberation of Izmir, but also the liberation of all of Turkey and the entire Turkish Nation. This is our common history. For us Turks, knowing and feeling this historical fact is the foundation on which we build our future.

May it be blessed.