President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated, "We will never forgive those who call July 15 intrigue, a theater, or a staged fight, until the end of time."
President Erdoğan and his wife Emine Erdoğan visited the "July 15 Martyrs' Memorial" at the July 15 Martyrs' Bridge on the 8th anniversary of thwarting the coup attempt by FETÖ.
During the visit, which began with a recitation of the Quran for the martyrs, President Erdoğan also recited verses from the Quran. After prayers for the martyrs, President Erdoğan laid a wreath at the memorial.
In his speech, President Erdoğan said:
"Dear relatives of our martyrs, our heroic veterans, I greet you all with my most heartfelt feelings, with respect and love. Today marks the 8th anniversary of the treacherous coup attempt of July 15. On this historic day, when our nation wrote a legendary story against the coup plotters, we are once again together as one heart and one fist. We have just sent our prayers to the heroes who sacrificed themselves for our independence and future. May God bless the souls of all our brothers and sisters who sipped the sherbet of martyrdom by standing against bullets that night. I pray that their souls rest in peace and their places in paradise. I once again express my gratitude to our veterans who were injured while fighting for the same noble cause. I wish mercy from Allah to all our heroes who fell martyr while defending our homeland, our flag, and our future, along with the martyrs of July 15.
From the first moments of the coup attempt, I thank once again everyone who ran to the streets and squares to resist the traitors without even waiting for our call. The July 15 Martyrs' Bridge, right ahead of us, is one of the foremost places where the nation's will soared and where a true story of heroism was written that night. On the bridge, where the coup started, the treacherous coup plotters continued to shed blood and massacre innocents throughout the night until dawn. We lost a total of 34 heroes on the bridge alone, including 2 police officers.
We all witnessed the treacherous and brutal face of the coup plotters in the crimes they committed here. We have not and will not forget those scenes etched in our memories. Likewise, we proudly remember the epic struggle our nation waged with bare hands against tanks and weapons of death. We will always commemorate with gratitude the heroes of national will who challenged the coup plotters by saying, 'One dies but once, let it be a worthy death. If we are to die, let it be for our country and nation.' We will keep the heroism of our martyrs, who have their names inscribed in gold letters in the history and hearts of our nation, alive by passing it down from tongue to tongue, from heart to heart.
We will never forgive those who call July 15 an intrigue, a theater, or a staged fight until the end of time. Those who slander July 15 with these ugly accusations are the pawns of the bloody intrigue and grand theater intended to be played against Türkiye. Just as this nation has thwarted every attempt to touch its independence and shackle its will, it will continue to do so in the future. May God protect us from facing such vile attempts again. I thank each of you for not forgetting our martyrs and for reviving the spirit of July 15. God willing, we will be together with our noble nation tonight at the Presidential Complex, another place honored by the veterans of that night. No matter what absurd excuses are produced to make us forget, we will never stop wholeheartedly and powerfully owning July 15. Once again, I express my gratitude to each of you, I remember our blessed martyrs with mercy, and I say, may God bless our veterans."
