President Erdoğan attends the Grand Rumelia Gathering

 

Speaking at the Grand Rumelia Gathering, President Erdoğan said: “Our brothers and sisters from Western Thrace, Bulgaria and the Balkans are not immigrants, but the true children of our country.”

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a speech at the Grand Rumelia Gathering.

“We are a state that has taken over the flag of independence and future from the Ottoman Empire, which once ruled over tens of millions of square kilometers,” President Erdoğan said. “The Republic of Türkiye is not the first, but the last state of our nation, which has been struggling for survival in these lands for a thousand years. Throughout history, we, as a nation, have taught humanity to the whole world with our dignity, conscience, mercy and compassion. With our brothers and sisters who made Anatolia their home, we first made epic history in Çanakkale.”

“The period of retreat that started after the victories of our ancestors, which extended into inner Europe, ended only with the Great Offensive. Under the leadership of Ghazi Mustafa Kemal, who was a Rumelian himself, we crowned our War of Independence with victory. By establishing the Republic, whose 100th anniversary will be celebrated on October 29th, our nation gained a safe haven where it could heal its wounds and recover for the first time in centuries,” President Erdoğan said.

“Our brothers and sisters from Western Thrace, Bulgaria and the Balkans are not immigrants, but the true children of our country,” President Erdoğan underlined. Your grandfathers, your ancestors came back to their homeland. Like brothers and sisters reunited after a century of longing, we hugged and embraced one another. We cannot thank Allah enough for having a homeland like Türkiye, a home like Türkiye,” President Erdoğan said.