MÜSİAD LOYALTY TO THE PLEDGE DINNER
MÜSİAD HEAD OFFICE
21 FEBRUARY 2020
Honourable Deputy Minister of Industry and Technology,
Honourable President of the İstanbul Chamber of Commerce,
My Most Esteemed Former MÜSİAD Presidents,
Esteemed MÜSİAD Members and Friends,
On this beautiful evening, when we experience the happiness of seeing that we have so many friends who are loyal to our pledge, I greet you all with respect; welcome, you have brought joy with you.
Esteemed Friends,
Our MÜSİAD is preparing to complete its 30th year this year.
On the road we set out upon 30 years ago in a small office in Mecidiyeköy, we accumulated such fine experience and gathered such fine friends that the passing years carried us to a rare position not only in the business world but in people's hearts as well.
While reflecting our words “MÜSİAD is a cause of civilization” through our actions, this unique unity of hearts was added to it and gave us a gift granted to very few NGOs.
Today, here with us are our members who have completed their 20th and 25th years within MÜSİAD, our founders and our long-standing friends. This is our greatest gift!
We say, “We are the most effective and the most widespread NGO in Türkiye and in the world.”
We say this, alongside the fact that we are active at 225 locations in 89 places in Türkiye and in 95 countries around the world, with reference to the level a “cause of civilization” has attained.
How did we succeed, what roads has MÜSİAD passed through, how did Türkiye reach these days; as the representative of an NGO that has witnessed 30 years of it, I would like to draw a brief panorama for you today:
When we look at MÜSİAD's history, in a sense we are in fact also witnessing the recent history of Türkiye.
Coups, coup attempts, economic crises, political upheavals…
MÜSİAD is the living witness of all these processes.
The year 1990, in which the foundations of MÜSİAD were laid, coincides with the period in which Anatolian capital began to recognize its own worth.
That year is the year in which the footsteps of the breaking of the business world's customary moulds were heard.
That year is the year in which the first steps were taken towards attaining the self-confidence of “we will be the founders of this game”, just as the understanding of “you have no place in this game!” was about to be imposed. It appears in the founding stories told by our founders themselves; in those days, the words “you cannot do it, turn back from this road” were the most frequently used warning and perhaps threat.
While friends whose intentions we did not doubt assessed the existing situation and tried to say, “there is a powerful bloc against you, you will be crushed”, on the other hand the threat of “we will not let you hold on, you cannot do it” was also felt to a considerable degree.
When you set out, two options appear before you: either you deny the existence of the road and return to the point where you began to walk, accepting the existing conditions, which is a comfortable zone, or you gird yourself with all your faith, say “Come, in the name of God”, and begin to walk.
At that very moment such great walls, such thorny and steep paths appear before you that you often look behind you, and you even consider turning back.
In those moments there is only one thing that takes you by the arm and raises you to your feet: your faith!
The story of MÜSİAD's founding and of its reaching these days is the proof that no barrier can stand before determination and faith, esteemed friends.
This is precisely why we say, “MÜSİAD is another name for struggle.”
Recalling the words, “Even if I were to study for a thousand years, if they asked me ‘what do you know?’, I would say ‘I know my place’,” we continued and we continue on our way without arrogance, but also with an awareness of our strength.
On this tangled road, of course we did not advance alone.
We made our way with our esteemed friends who believed in us, with our valued members and with everyone who stood beside us without questioning and without building walls between us.
We have always believed in the power of being together and of growing together.
While MÜSİAD, with its founding, was still struggling to break an important prejudice in the country, we experienced a disaster that, even when we mention it today, echoes in our minds with the shock of the first day: February 28!
This was one of the harshest storms we faced as MÜSİAD.
Our presidents were put on trial, we faced the threat of closure, tax penalties were imposed on our members, we experienced police raids, and we were made a target with distortions and false news.
The names who today adorn the screens, the newspaper columns and the conference halls with eulogies to democracy were in those days wagging their index fingers and calculating how to push us out of the game.
We forget nothing, we erase from our memory not a single frame of the oppression that was inflicted, and we do not accept it.
But we no longer have time to lose, or to make our country lose, by bearing a grudge.
We saw this too in the Epic of July 15, which we wrote into history in bold letters.
On that day the Turkish Nation explained what it means to be united, even to those who most stubbornly refused to understand!
We too, as MÜSİAD, set out our stance with the slogan "July 15, From Darkness to Light".
In the following days, we carried out work supporting this stance of ours.
Travelling around Türkiye, we said, “The Future is Yours, Claim It”.
In the example of February 28 as in July 15, in every matter where the homeland was at stake, we were not among those who disappear while everything is ablaze and reappear once all is well.
For MÜSİAD has never been a structure that shows its presence when everything is going well and disappears when the wind turns.
MÜSİAD is a friend in bad times!
MÜSİAD means love of the homeland!
We do not accept any path other than democracy.
On this occasion I would like to state once more: as MÜSİAD we have always stood beside our state and our nation, and we will continue to do so from now on as well.
Distinguished Guests,
We set out with an ideal; we believed in “High morality, advanced technology, a strong Türkiye”.
We will reach this ideal all together.
As business people who believe in the abundance of these lands and in the strength of the Turkish Nation, as children of this country, we will continue to produce and to grow.
Today I speak before you as the President of MÜSİAD; when my term of office ends, I will continue to serve our MÜSİAD, just as I did before taking over the presidency.
For as my President Ömer Cihad said, “MÜSİAD has no retired members, only departed ones”.
May my Lord grant us the opportunity to serve our MÜSİAD and our country for as long as our lives allow.
On this occasion, I thank the Presidents who served before me and everyone who has supported us, from our first members to our newest member, and I pray for God's mercy upon those who have passed away.
Esteemed Friends,
We named today's gathering Loyalty to the Pledge.
We come from a tradition that knows the responsibility a pledge places upon a person and that holds the value of the pledge above all else.
As MÜSİAD, we move forward without forgetting the pledge we gave to our country and to our nation from the very first day of our founding: “to win together, to share as brothers, to grow together”.
We are strengthening the bond between us and all our friends, above all our members, even further by remaining faithful to this pledge.
May our Lord grant us the opportunity to gather around this pledge for many long years to come.
As I bring my words to an end with these feelings and thoughts, I thank everyone who contributed to the organization of this beautiful evening and greet you all with respect and affection.
Abdurrahman Kaan
President of MÜSİAD