8 February 2023
The message of our President, Mr Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, for 3 December, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities:
“I hope that 3 December, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, will bring good things for all our brothers and sisters with disabilities in our country and around the world.
Overcoming barriers is a matter of belief. The key to success is, first and foremost, to believe. Our brothers and sisters with disabilities, who make us proud with their achievements and inspire us all with their determination and resolve, are the finest example of this.
In every area of life — in sport, in art, in literature, in politics, in education, in civil society, in the business world — the struggle shown by our brothers and sisters with disabilities despite every difficulty is truly worthy of admiration.
Spreading throughout society the awareness that the problem lies not in physical barriers but in the barriers in people's hearts, and ensuring that the barriers in minds are removed and that the reality that our citizens with disabilities are a part of us is understood, have long been among our priority concerns.
It is for this reason that, as a requirement of our understanding of the social state, and particularly over the past 16 years, we have attached great importance to producing solutions to the problems of our citizens with disabilities, in an effort to embrace all sections of society equally and fairly.
Producing solutions so that our brothers and sisters with disabilities and their families can look to the future with greater confidence, we have gradually removed the legal, social and physical barriers before them, and we continue to remove them.
We have taken important steps towards increasing accessibility and quality in care and rehabilitation services, encouraging the employment of our citizens with disabilities in the public and private sectors, and increasing support for special education.
The greatest gain of this process is the fundamental change in the outlook and mindset towards our citizens with disabilities in our country. We regard the work carried out not as a favour, but as the delivery to their rightful owners of rights long felt to be lacking.
On the occasion of 3 December, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, I wish to underline once again that as a nation we must act more responsibly, more consciously and more sensitively on the question of disability.
I call on all our citizens to help and support our citizens with disabilities and to fulfil their duties by treating their problems as though they were their own; and I greet with respect and affection our brothers and sisters with disabilities, who are an example to us all with their resolute stance and their efforts.”