Two serious warnings for CHP leader Özgür Özel!

The CHP pulled off a major surprise, not only emerging as the leading party in the local elections but also becoming the largest party in Turkey.

It won a large number of metropolitan, provincial, district, and town municipalities.

Less than 40 days after the elections, I would like to share with you two shortcomings that have caught my eye.

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The first is a serious deficiency…

As you know, the first order of business for the CHP mayors who took over from former AKP and MHP mayors was to announce the debt burden left behind by their predecessors.

In particular, the new mayors of Kastamonu, Istanbul Çatalca, Şile, Beykoz, Tuzla, Bucak, Döşemealtı, Kiraz, Alaşehir, Kahramankazan, Altınordu, Dinar, Bucak, Köyceğiz, Keşan, Elbistan, Bolvadin, İncirliova, Marmara Ereğlisi and dozens of other municipalities had the debts left to them written on giant banners and hung them on the municipal buildings.

Thus, the public saw with their own eyes the arbitrary and wasteful management policy pursued by politicians belonging to the ruling party.

I find this practice correct, but incomplete.

The incomplete part is that the same practice is not being carried out in municipalities where CHP mayors took over from former CHP mayors.

Do the citizens living in the municipalities I listed above have the right to know the municipality's debt, but citizens living in municipalities that passed from one CHP mayor to another—primarily Izmir, Tekirdağ, and Eskişehir, as well as Edirne, Kadıköy, Bakırköy, Beşiktaş, Şişli, Maltepe, and Karşıyaka—do not have such a right?

Why is this practice not being implemented in all municipalities, including those where the mayors have not changed?

Why are citizens not being informed?

Why are the balance sheets of former administrations not being laid bare?

If it is natural to expose AKP members when they squander resources, why are CHP mayors who sit in luxurious offices, use two or three luxury official vehicles, organize concerts costing millions of liras, and drag their municipalities into a debt trap being kept out of sight?

Why are they being protected and shielded?

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Let us come to the second problematic issue:

The certificates of election had barely been distributed when the rumor mills began to churn in CHP-run municipalities.

The first rumor came from the Istanbul Çekmeköy Municipality.

It was alleged that Elif Duygu Adıgüzel, the wife of CHP Ataşehir Mayor Onursal Adıgüzel, was appointed as Deputy Mayor to the CHP-run Çekmeköy Municipality.

Upon the news breaking, this appointment was abandoned.

Now, similar news is coming from the CHP-run Kırşehir and Bursa municipalities.

It has emerged that Kırşehir Mayor Selahattin Ekicioğlu appointed his brother-in-law Hamza Çam and his wife's brother-in-law Mustafa Orman as deputy mayors...

As if there was no one else left in the entire province, the Mayor attempted to run the city with his wife's relatives...

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Bursa Metropolitan Mayor Mustafa Bozbey also did not leave his own nephew Furkan Bozbey unemployed...

He appointed him as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of one of the municipality's subsidiaries, Bursa Kent Yapı İmar Bilişim Enerji (BURKENT)...

I do not know the expertise of these gentlemen, or whether they possess merit and competence...

I only know one thing; even if they were qualified, it is a political scandal for mayors to appoint their relatives to those seats.

If you attempt to run cities this way, you lose the right to criticize the AKP, which has already been running the country with this mentality for 22 years...

Therefore, I expect these “flawed appointments” made in both Bursa and Kırşehir to be canceled immediately and for truly deserving administrators to be placed in those seats.

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CHP Chairman Özgür Özel…

The local elections held a month ago are not only the first election you emerged from with your head held high, but they are also a harbinger of the CHP's march to power.

The public gave you and your team the task of “practicing clean and transparent politics.”

However, in one month, we have seen that the shadow of nepotism has already fallen upon your politics.

It has become clear that the mentality of “if they are one of us, ignore it” has begun to prevail.

Please, in all the municipalities you manage, have the debts handed over hung as banners, regardless of the former mayor's party...

And absolutely ban the appointment of relatives, spouses, and friends. Impose sanctions on those who do this...

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You must take these two steps.

Because from now on, whether you succeed or not concerns not only your administrators, you, and the CHP; it concerns all patriots.

Please do not make mistakes.