“THE RESULTS FROM THIS WILL BE OUR GOVERNMENT’S ROAD MAP ON SPORTS”
Prime Minister Ünal Üstel’s speech is exactly as follows: “Today, we are in great excitement to convene the 13th Sports Council after 5 years. We are also happy that the sports council, which has been postponed for a long time, took place in our period, under the auspices of our Prime Ministry and Sports Department and during our government.
This is the most concrete indicator of how much importance we attach to the development of our country’s sports, the increase in the number of our athletes, the development of our sports facilities and, above all, the planned growth of our sports.
Both our undersecretariat and a young and dynamic team worked hard to convene the council. I would like to thank them from here.
Although the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus has been under cultural and sports embargoes for years, thanks to our young people, it has achieved the impossible and has achieved important sports events and successes both in the country and abroad with a total of 33 sports federations. Despite such a difficult process, the successes of our athletes are admirable.
Therefore, while there are such determined young people in love with sports in our country, our most important duty is to develop our infrastructure and increase the opportunities we offer them in order to improve their sports success. This is our duty to our youth.
That’s why we care about the sports council and its results. The results that emerge here will be the road map of our government. You all know the importance we attach to sports infrastructure and the sports facilities we have established during our time in government. It is clear that we have made the greatest contribution to the sports infrastructure in this country, within the limits of our possibilities.
Of course it is not enough. We also know that we have serious deficiencies in terms of infrastructure. For this reason, we will spend 2024 declaring mobilization in terms of establishment. There are projects being prepared, there are ongoing projects, there are new projects that we will start from scratch.
We, as a state, will do whatever we have to do. However; We cannot cover the issue with only sports infrastructure. In line with our promise to support sports and athletes, we will ensure the development of sports infrastructure and increase the support we provide to our athletes. We will work hard together with our federations to increase the number of successful athletes.
In these days when we set sail for a new future in the name of embracing the world, it is very important and valuable to fly our flag internationally. Despite the sports embargoes imposed in our country, we have responsibilities for the development of our sports and our athletes, both as a team and individually.
This is my call to our friends who will work here; Put forward a good vision for supporting all of our athletes and especially our teams and athletes representing us abroad. It will be up to you to set the vision and it will be up to us to find the resources.
We should carry our cooperation, which has developed and moved forward in every field with our motherland Turkey, also in the field of sports. We know that Türkiye, which is with us on every issue, will be with us on this issue as well. Our esteemed Minister of Youth and Sports of Türkiye is here; Now that I have him in front of me, I want to call out to him too;
Dear Minister, we have great expectations from you. Our athletes lack external contact. External contact means motivation. It means being an inspiration for the training of new athletes. Therefore, please let’s work proactively and together to ease the embargoes imposed on us by the world. Let our athlete brothers and sisters fight together. Let our federations work together.
I remember, in the past, Turkish teams used to come to our country and play matches both with us and among themselves. In those days, there was a holiday in our country. This longing must end now. Let’s give a good answer to the world that sees this embrace so much, with sports, culture and art. Sports teams in Turkey and TRNC teams should embrace each other again. And this longing must end now. There is no need to go further. I repeat. The results from this meeting will be our government’s road map regarding sports. Next year we will launch a campaign to develop the facilities. We will increase support to our federations. We will take steps to further support our athletes representing us abroad. and finally. I hope that in the near future, thanks to the brave and determined stance of the President of the Republic of Turkey, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the longing between our teams will end.
I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the preparation of the 13th Sports Council. I invite everyone to work with serious motivation and create a feasible road map. I would like to thank our guests for not leaving us alone. I hope that the council will bring good things to our country, our people and our sports community.”
