Every dissident will eventually face a reckoning!

Ümit Özdağ has announced that Ekrem İmamoğlu was denied permission to visit him in Silivri, despite having applied to do so three times.

This situation requires careful consideration.

Because a potential multiplier effect could disrupt their plans. The government is aware of this.

I conducted a long interview with Ümit Özdağ about a month before his arrest.

He mainly evaluated the Syria issue, provided some behind-the-scenes information, and expressed his predictions for the near future.

For instance, he said he expected a snap election in June 2025, emphasized that the government was pinning its hopes on the statement Öcalan would make for both Turkey and Syria, and stated, “While releasing Öcalan, they have to meet some of his demands. How can they meet these demands? By amending the Constitution... In short, the need for a constitutional amendment is closely related to developments in Syria and the PKK laying down its arms and dissolving itself.”

But his most critical sentence was, “Since we, as the Victory Party (Zafer Partisi), are not in parliament, we will be faced with the necessity of turning all of Turkey into a parliament.”

This sentence should be considered not in isolation, but together with his words, “We are not against this or that point of the process, we are against the process itself, and we have stated this clearly; we will sabotage this process,” which he uttered while criticizing the peace process.

We can say that it was these two critical sentences that spurred the government into action.

If the Victory Party had continued with the momentum it had gained in recent months, it would have become extremely difficult for the government to cozy up to pro-Kurdish factions. Ümit Özdağ, in addition to being taken seriously in nationalist circles, was adept at striking a chord with the people of this country, as he did with the refugee issue.

Turning the whole of Turkey into a parliament would also mean organizing a strong civil resistance nationwide.

Whether he could do this alone or how much of it he could achieve is debatable, but it is clear that he truly frightened the government.

I had the chance to ask one or two people who know the AKP circles well.

They started by saying, “We didn't take Gezi seriously at first either,” and then, in essence, they said that Tayyip Erdoğan did not want to leave things to chance this time, which is why he is nipping these and similar sensitive issues in the bud before they grow.

Let us look at the denial of permission for Ekrem İmamoğlu's visit from this perspective.

More than a month has passed since Ümit Özdağ's arrest.

The mill of the agenda turns so fast that the issue has almost been relegated to the dusty shelves of the news cycle. It is no longer as prominent on news channels or social media as it was on the first day.

However, there is a very important point here that must be underlined with a thick pen.

The government applies “enemy criminal law” to those who do not think like them or to anyone they now perceive as a political threat.

So, what is this enemy criminal law?

According to what is written in law books, it has emerged as an understanding that, out of security concerns and for the purpose of preventing danger, treats people who oppose the fundamental legal and state order not as citizens with basic rights, but as enemies who must be crushed and destroyed, thereby making them the subject of criminal law while depriving them of their basic rights...

Let us put aside his political identity, his past in nationalist circles, and his academic background; the government does not see Ümit Özdağ as a citizen with basic rights, but as an enemy intent on eliminating them!

Moreover, by taking advantage of the fact that it is not opposed or questioned loudly and on principle, they are normalizing this.

So far, there has not been a strong pushback from legal professionals either.

After a while, we will see that everyone who dares to criticize the government will face enemy criminal law.

Ümit Özdağ brought this issue to the agenda a few times after entering prison, but there was little interest afterward. Yet, in the current circumstances, the opposition should have kept this on the agenda constantly and created awareness among the people.

Because the CHP was preoccupied with determining a candidate for an election whose date is not even set yet, it could not keep this issue, which concerns everyone against the government, on the agenda.

The visits paid by Ekrem İmamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş to Ümit Özdağ's mother are important, but not enough.

They have a great opportunity before them to create a much stronger point of resistance.

This must not be squandered.

Let us conclude our article by saying that while a real and imminent threat is staring us in the face, engaging in political maneuvering to maintain the status quo will not benefit anyone.