“I am determined to serve my duty”
On March 31, 1963, the Prime Minister addressed the youth visiting him on the 42nd anniversary of the victory of the Second Battle of İnönü. Citing parallelisms between the status quo after the coup d’état of 1960 and the days of war, İnönü gave the young people the message that he could handle the challenges of the present they way he did in the past:
The Battles of İnönü were days of conflict during which a civil war and enemy attacks were overcome together. The civil war entailed the efforts to establish the state and government of the Grand National Assembly, created in the middle of Anatolia, as a full-fledged state of law…
Similar to the days of İnönü, today, we are faced with the attempts to establish and implement a new constitution drafted against a government that has lost its legitimacy. The challenges we face comprise the stages and hardships of this new establishment. After three years of struggle, we have reached a critical point.
We shall overcome these issues. In a sense, I see myself back in the days of the Battles of İnönü. The difficulties we encounter are the same. I am full of life. I am determined to serve my duty.
