President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the Sports Equipment Distribution Ceremony for Special Education Schools “The Love of Sports Knows No Barriers” at Beştepe Millet Congress and Culture Center.
Here are the highlights of President Erdogan’s statements:
Together with my brothers and sisters here, I congratulate the Disability Week of all my disabled citizens. They set an example for all of us with their outstanding achievements in all areas of life. Recently, our disabled people have achieved proud achievements in different branches of sports around the world. On behalf of my country and nation, I would like to express my gratitude to all our athletes who proudly wave our glorious flag everywhere.
NO ONE CAN BE PUSHED OUT OF SOCIAL LIFE DUE TO PHYSICAL DISABILITY
Regardless of their origin, belief or culture, each of the 85 million people is equal in the eyes of our state. In our understanding of politics and the state, no one can be marginalized because of their human qualities and innate characteristics. No one can be discriminated against because of their appearance. No one can be excluded from social life because of their physical disability. Even if others turn their backs, we can never ignore our disabled brothers and sisters.
Like all members of 85 million, we attach great importance to the participation of our disabled brothers and sisters in life as equal individuals without any problems. We will enable thousands of disabled youth in our 81 provinces, from Hakkari to Edirne, to do sports. Hopefully, after Tokyo, we will return from Paris with completely different victories. Sports is an area of activity that ensures the active participation of our disabled citizens in life. Our disabled brothers and sisters in Turkey have been neglected or the victims of prejudices for many years. Their self-confidence has been eroded by constantly saying ‘you can’t do it’. Unfortunately, there was no will, vision and sensitivity to encourage them to participate in life. We have radically changed this tableau. We have done really good work to solve the problems of our disabled people. With the Law on the Disabled, we have taken historical steps on many issues that concern our disabled people, from education to care. With the constitutional amendment made in 2010, we have taken the positive discrimination towards the disabled under the constitutional guarantee. We have implemented original applications such as home care support, assistance and hope homes.
WE WILL NOT LEAVE YOU ALONE
We turn homes and hospitals into schools for children who cannot go to school. We provide training to 453 thousand children and youth with special educational needs. The number of support training rooms, which was 79, reached 638 by 2022. We will not leave you alone. We will do whatever it takes, we are determined to do so.
OUR DISABLED WRITTEN EPISODES
Our disabled brothers and sisters, who have been excluded for many years, say ‘I’m here too’ in sports, art and academia. Our disabled people, who were able to show a limited presence in many branches of sports, are writing epics in many fields of sports today. Turkey participated in the 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games with only one athlete. After 20 years, we participated in the Tokyo Paralympics with 87 athletes, and we returned to our country with a total of 15 medals. The number of disabled athletes increased to 45 thousand 441 as of 2021. We have rearranged all sports facilities of our Ministry for the access of our disabled brothers and sisters. We have already started our preparations for the 2024 Paris Olympics. I think we will set a new record with the number of athletes and the number of medals won.