You are not doing well, my brother Özgür!

It has been 40 days since Özgür Özel, who set out with the slogan “Change,” was elected as the CHP Chairman…

In these 40 days, in my opinion, he has done little work and worn himself out a lot!

Why, you ask?

Let me explain:

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I must admit, after the last election defeat, I was one of those who definitely did not intend to go to the ballot box again.

I was one of the millions who were exhausted and heartbroken from paying the price for Kılıçdaroğlu’s mistakes every election night.

My decision was clear:

Since the CHP leadership does not care about the Atatürkists of this country, wants to govern the country just as it learned from the AKP, and does not stop imitating it; then I would not be fooled again!

I was certainly not alone in this regard.

Everyone I spoke to who votes for the CHP thought the same as I did:

“Never again!”

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Then the “change-makers” led by Ekrem İmamoğlu and Özgür Özel appeared…

This word tickled my “revolutionary” spirit:

“Change…”

I started watching, saying “Let’s see.”

The fact that Özgür Özel was one of the most important cogs in Kılıçdaroğlu’s team and bore responsibility for the flawed policies pursued, of course, made me think I should be “cautious”…

But it was better than nothing!

When the change-makers seized power in the party with a surprise result that even they did not expect at the beginning, I changed my decision:

This new team deserved a chance, and I was going to give it to them.

At the end of this coming March, I was going to go to the ballot box again and cast my vote…

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But now… I am about to become indecisive again!

Because from the day he sat in that seat, Özgür Özel has been making serious mistakes on critical issues.

He made his first serious mistake in his very speech at the Party Congress, by sending greetings to Selahattin Demirtaş, who said, “We will erect Apo’s statue, his statue.”

Then his first act was to go to a concert with HEDEP members and kiss the hand of the Kurdish-origin soprano Pervin Chakar, who described Turkey as an “occupier.”

It was also thought-provoking that he tried to defend what he did by saying, “An artist’s hand is to be kissed,” without even calculating how this would be used in the first elections!

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It didn’t end there:

He did not even oppose the naming of a boulevard in Diyarbakır after the Atatürk-hater Sheikh Said.

Far from opposing it, he took the issue to a point of tolerance, just like the AKP, HEDEP, and HÜDAPAR, and said, “Let’s leave this matter to the historians.”

He blamed the government of that era by saying, “Let us not upset the grandchildren with the problems experienced during the suppression of the uprising.”

In other words, he chose to upset the grandchildren of those who suppressed the rebellion, not the rebels!

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Özgür Özel also squeezed in two meetings with Kılıçdaroğlu during these 40 days; as if to say, “Don’t wear me out, look, I am following in your footsteps…”

Furthermore, by breaking the promises he made at the Congress for the upcoming local elections, he not only failed to impose the condition of primary elections but also declared that the party leadership itself would have the final say, thus murdering intra-party democracy, just like Kılıçdaroğlu.

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That is why… The hope that appeared in people like me on the night of the Congress is rapidly being replaced by the thought: “The promises of change were a big balloon… Nothing has changed… Same old story.”

If Özgür Özel continues to act as a sidekick to HEDEP, as if giving ammunition to the People’s Alliance, and continues to view CHP voters as “sitting ducks”—just as Kılıçdaroğlu did—by saying, “You will go and vote willy-nilly, you have no other choice,” he will destroy his own political career, the CHP, and the backbone of the Republic of Turkey!

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My grade for Özgür Özel’s first 40 days is three out of ten…

What is yours?