Breaking News... He had supported the live broadcast request: Response from Özgür Özel to Devlet Bahçeli!

Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Özgür Özelspoke at his party's weekly group meeting in the Turkish Grand National Assembly.

Özel began his speech by commemorating the soldiers who were martyred in the methane gas disaster.

Stating that they would submit a parliamentary inquiry regarding the disaster in which the soldiers were martyred, Özel requested support from all parties.

Özel addressed the remarks of MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli, who had supported the request for the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Ekrem İmamoğlu case to be broadcast live on TRT.

Özel stated the following:

"We had said 3T, and we are coming to that 3T. A Turkey without terror, trial without detention, and live broadcast on TRT.

I see this as an important step taken, both with the hope of reaching a Turkey without terror and in terms of strengthening the internal front, being one and together, and evaluating the conditions around us."

Mr. Özgür asked if you are going to stage a coup. Mr. Bahçeli, I am not staging any coup. 

What I am doing is exercising my right to resist the March 19 coup. If you say trial without arrest, if you say let the indictments be written, if you say let it be broadcast on TRT, then the CHP will never have any intention of a coup. You will see, as you have before, that we are exhausting our breath to establish peace, poverty, and unemployment, just as we are showing energy to resist this coup.

I value the step taken by Bahçeli. From now on, we will continue to take the steps that fall to us, but let everyone know that as long as the CHP does not abandon the AK Party's aggression, as long as they do not attack our friends with judicial apparatuses, slander, insults, and blackmail methods, and as long as they do not return the elected officials of 25 million voters to their duties and ensure that judicial processes are fair and trials are conducted without arrest, the streets are ours, and the squares are ours too!"

Our Chairman Özgür Özel is speaking at our party's TBMM group meeting. https://t.co/oIvnZIjTQ2

— CHP ???? (@herkesicinCHP) July 8, 2025

Highlights from Özel's speech are as follows:

They had gone to search for the body of our martyred Infantry First Lieutenant Nuri Melih Bozkurt. Our soldiers who entered a cave were exposed to methane gas there, and we lost 12 of our Mehmetçik; they were martyred. I wish God's mercy upon them and offer my condolences to our nation and their families. The martyrdom of our 12 children in such an incident has both broken our nation's heart and, at the same time, deeply saddened and disturbed us.

There are many questions. It is considered that there was negligence and a chain of errors. Undoubtedly, there are lessons to be learned, but these lessons should have been learned long ago.

There are questions that need to be answered, but these answers should have been found long ago. We currently have funerals for our martyrs in many of our cities, including Istanbul. Our colleagues and provincial chairs are representing our party at these ceremonies.

After the burial procedures are completed, we will bring the matter to the parliamentary agenda. Although the Ministry of National Defense says that an investigation has been opened, experts on the subject state that this issue is worth investigating by the parliament, and that the questions that need to be answered can only be clearly addressed if the parliament pursues the matter with determination.

They mention that sufficient reconnaissance was not carried out, whether gas masks and oxygen tanks were provided to our children, that a robot or unmanned vehicle should have entered the cave first, that these vehicles are among the state-of-the-art unmanned vehicles in the Turkish Armed Forces' inventory, that it should have been foreseen whether any blasting was done in this cave and if so, that this blast would ignite the gas inside, and that the number of health professionals accompanying the soldiers, their training, and the scope of the first aid materials they had with them should be thoroughly investigated.

We will submit our parliamentary inquiry motion. We expect support from all parties on this issue. Because, in the end, we all went for our national service and performed our duties.

The Turkish nation does not shy away from this issue, but these losses, which occurred while retrieving the body of a martyr from 3 years ago without using such simple precautions and equipment, have truly burned our hearts. As the main opposition party, it is our nation's expectation and demand from us to pursue this matter, to ensure it is investigated, to take the necessary measures to prevent it from happening again, and to demand that those responsible be punished.

CHP TO COVER THE SCHOLARSHIP PROVIDED BY THE MARTYR

Furthermore, some text messages from our martyr, contract soldier Özkan Özkanlı, have been reflected in the public domain. It is understood that he insisted on providing scholarships to some students in his hometown of Aksaray with the salary he barely lived on.

Through our Party Assembly member and provincial chairman, we reached out to the institution mediating the scholarship and learned that he grew up without a mother or father, was raised on scholarships himself, and upon receiving his first salary after starting his profession as a contract soldier, he called the institution that provided him with a scholarship and expressed his desire to provide a scholarship to a Syrian child in Syria who had been left orphaned and had to grow up as an orphan just like him. We have obtained the information. As the Republican People's Party group, the scholarship of the child our martyr was supporting will not be cut; we are taking over that scholarship, friends.

"THE AK PARTY AND THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE HAVE COMMITTED PIRACY"

On the other hand, some of the Republican People's Party deputies are monitoring the Kartalkaya case today.

I was there yesterday as well and followed the first part until noon. The Kartalkaya case is a case we have been following closely from these podiums, and whose details we have been tracking. You will all remember. While we were going to hold our group meeting in Istanbul, Turkey woke up to that tragic news in the morning.

The incoming reports stated that there were over 60 casualties, which would later rise to 78. At 9:00 AM, the leader of the main opposition party knew there were over 60 casualties.

The leaders of the opposition parties knew. Everyone present there knew. But Turkey did not learn the death toll until 11:00 AM, first 4, then 6, until the AK Party Ankara Provincial Congress was held.

Until Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned a badge on someone joining his party from another party, until that ceremony was held in all its splendor, and only then did the figure reach 78, going from 63 to 65. We had lost 78 of our lives, 36 of whom were children and infants.

I went there on the first day. The Minister of Interior said that within 10 days, all those responsible and all responsibilities would be revealed in the most transparent manner. He said they would provide information on this matter. He spoke of the Ministry of Interior's capacity in this regard.

Then, no one heard anything from him on this subject again. The prosecutor's office appointed an expert committee. They gave the committee 3 days. A 7-person committee. The committee worked day and night for 3 days. I showed their appointment letters from this podium.

I showed the photo of the committee when they started their work, the photos they took and had taken during the fire and during their work at the hotel after the fire, and the expert report they wrote at the end of the 3 days. They gave them 3 days.

At the end of the 3 days, they went to submit it at 5:00 PM. A phone call from the ministry in Ankara, a phone call from the person who received the call, saying 'let's take a look at this report'.

In the report, the expert committee finds the Bolu Provincial Special Administration, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the hotel management responsible.

They say, 'This report won't do.' Why? 'Remove the Ministry of Culture from here. Let the Ministry of Culture not be included. Instead, add the Bolu Municipality here.'

The committee says, 'It is not within the municipal boundaries, it is in a completely different place; we cannot add the Bolu Municipality here. Especially since the Ministry of Culture is the only authorized institution for inspection.'

The sign on the door is still there. They came and inspected it 1 month ago. In fact, the authorities even answered many questions regarding the fire on the inspection form. They are the ones responsible.

They are saying, 'You should dismiss this committee then.' I read the resignation letters of all 7 of them here. On the evening of the 3rd day, they had completed their duty, stating, 'I am resigning due to reasons I have deemed necessary' and 'I am resigning due to my health problems.' We then shared that report with the public. They said the report was pirated. Yes, a piracy activity did take place.

A piracy activity is when an unauthorized person obtains legitimate property through illegitimate means. If there is a piracy activity, the report written by the experts—whose appointment papers we have in our hands for 3 days and nights, and who aimed not to distort their conscience or sign something that did not exist—is legitimate. The act committed by the Ministry of Justice and the AK Party, who called it pirated, is a piracy activity against justice. They have stolen justice.

Then a new expert report followed, and then, due to reactions, the old report was included but expanded. Thanks to public pressure and our insistence on this matter every week here, the Ministry of Tourism was finally included in the second report as well.

However, the Bolu Municipality's fire department was also included. The trial began yesterday. No institution or person can be exempt from being tried, but we will be the followers of a fair and speedy trial where all evidence is questioned with equity. We are there that day. We were there yesterday. We are there today.

"SHAME ON THE ONE WHO APPOINTED THAT MINISTER OF TOURISM"

Throughout the trial, both our friends in the relevant commission and our Bolu Deputy will be there. As my schedule permits, I will continue to go to the critical junctures of the trial to be there and follow the families' search for justice. But we have been there at every stage, including the emotional moments we shared yesterday.

We were there for the condolences. We were there for the 40th-day commemorations. We made visits in different cities. The biggest complaint of the families we embraced yesterday, with whom we shared emotional moments, is this: Some of those who should be tried here are being tried.

But those whom the prosecutor said should be tried in the first and second reports are not there. Who is missing? The Ministry of Culture and Tourism officials who went there for inspections and those who assigned them are not there. On the other hand, those who should have conducted inspections regarding occupational safety are not there. Because the relevant ministers, the Minister of Labor and the Minister of Tourism, did not sign the authorization to allow their personnel to be tried.

The Ministry of Tourism, which is primarily responsible, says 'do not touch the personnel.' Because they know that this matter is like pulling a thread from a sweater; if you give them the end, they will pull it until the whole thing unravels, and the end will eventually reach you.

While the hearts of these people are burning, and while 36 babies and children were handed over to their families as charred remains, that Minister of Tourism—who is the primary person responsible along with his ministry—traveled around the Aegean islands on his 50-meter yacht.

Yesterday, he anchored his 50-meter yacht in front of his 5-star hotel. He is enjoying himself and vacationing there. Grieving mothers, fathers, spouses, and grandparents—a child who buried 8 of their own children with their own hands, grandparents who buried 5 of their children with their own hands—are shedding tears there.

They cannot speak from crying. Shame on those who brought this country to this state, who appointed that Minister of Tourism, who keeps him there despite his failure to resign, and who still enables that Minister of Tourism. May they get what they deserve from God.

"YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE, ERDOĞAN, IT IS YOU, YOU, YOU"

I am saying this to the one who appointed that Minister of Tourism to our nation, who did not dismiss that Minister of Tourism, who remains silent in the face of this arrogance, and who says 'I am the one responsible' when it suits him. You are responsible, Erdoğan. It is you, you, you.

Today is the 7th anniversary of the Çorlu train accident. A little while ago, I understood and called Mısra Hanım, Mısra Öz, the mother of Oğuz Arda Sel. She is the symbolic figure of the case who brought all the families together.

She was already on her way to meet with the families. I spoke with her. I conveyed our party's feelings of solidarity once again and asked if she had anything to say. This is what she said: They are, of course, grateful for the solidarity and interest shown during the process, but she says the main culprits have not been tried. In fact, there are those who received sentences far beyond the responsibility of the crime they committed due to a signature they signed or another reason, but the main culprits—that is, those who were not tried because the Ministry of Transport did not grant permission, just as the same Minister of Tourism did—are still out there.

The murderers of my child, our children, and our families are those whom the Minister of Transport and the AK Party have not allowed to be questioned or brought to justice. He says that sleep will not come to our eyes until they are tried. We are facing a government that does not see the poor, does not love the needy, and works for and loves the rich.

REACTION TO THE MINING LAW

Now, one of those rich people has been given a prior promise to add to his wealth, to earn another 2.5 billion.

Then it came to parliament, and it went back. Environmentalists resisted, and it went back; there is the olive law. Our group put up a great fight. Of course, the law has many problematic aspects. We are preparing to express all of them and to subject them to Constitutional Court review if it is enacted.

They have determined the olive trees the rich will cut down with coordinates, and the law was postponed again this week, but they want to pass this law and leave before parliament closes. Then they found a way and say, 'If the CHP is against this law, let them go to the Constitutional Court.' We will go, of course, but do you know what will happen? While we are waiting at the Constitutional Court, thousands, tens of thousands of olive trees in the locations specified by the coordinates will be cut down.

'WE WILL GO TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT, BUT...'

Mining exploration will begin there. The Constitutional Court will find it unconstitutional 9 months later and will give the government 9 months to fix it, but it will be too late.

We invite everyone who came from Muğla, the Aegean, and all over Turkey in recent weeks to parliament again to resist this olive law, which has been postponed to next week. We call everyone to the struggle to fulfill our historical responsibility before history, to protect nature, the environment, and the olive tree—the most important plant of the Aegean and a tree mentioned in all holy books—and to wage this great struggle before parliament closes, even at the cost of not letting parliament close if necessary.

"THEY GAVE RETIREES A DAILY RAISE OF 80 LIRA"

I said they love the rich. They clearly do not love the worker or the retiree. They gave a 2,400 lira raise to retiree pensions. The lowest retiree pension is 16,881 lira, meaning from now until the end of the year, retirees will try to get by on 16,000 lira.

The raise provided is 80 lira per day. Throughout the history of the Republic, and even in these lands for centuries during the Ottoman era, salaries have been paid. This is the lowest raise ever given throughout the history of Anatolian civilizations. And he used to say, 'I have never let my retirees be crushed by inflation, I have never let them be crushed.'

The raise he gave doesn't even buy a bowl of soup. The AK Party has brought this country to a point where a retiree's raise doesn't even cover a bowl of soup. Before they came to power, the lowest retiree pension could buy 8 quarter-gold coins.

Tell this to all retirees, memorize it, and make others memorize it. The power of repetition is important. I am still traveling all over Turkey, explaining it everywhere. I am doing this calculation.

Those who see it are still surprised; they are shocked at how much we have eroded. Even the jeweler is surprised, they cannot believe it, and we turn back to the computer to check again and again.

"TODAY THE MINIMUM WAGE BUYS 3 QUARTER-GOLD COINS"

When the AK Party came to power, the lowest retiree pension could buy 8 quarter-gold coins, friends. Today, the lowest retiree pension buys 2.5 quarter-gold coins. When the AK Party came to power, the minimum wage could buy 7 quarter-gold coins. Today, the minimum wage buys 3 quarter-gold coins.

We have met with workers, employers, tradespeople, and all their representatives. Our esteemed professors and deputy chairmen have completed their work, and we have prepared three legislative proposals.

One of these is our minimum wage legislative proposal, which suggests setting the minimum wage at 30,205 liras. It bears my signature and the signatures of all deputies in our group. We are saying that we had already done the math at the beginning of the year. We said we would not accept anything below 30. The 6-month inflation rate, along with the welfare shares that were not provided last year and not provided for the first 6 months of this year according to the state's official figures—one at 3.5 percent and one at 2 percent—again equate to 30,205 TL. Our minimum wage proposal is here. On the other hand, we have signed and submitted our legislative proposal to bring the lowest pension to the level of the minimum wage, together with our group deputy chairmen and all our deputies. Furthermore, there is an expectation for a flat-rate raise for public employees, civil servant retirees, and public retirees. Last year, Tayyip Erdoğan promised an 8,000 TL flat-rate raise. Not only did they fail to do that, but we have also prepared our legislative proposal based on the expectation of all civil servant retirees for a 16,000 TL flat-rate raise—if they were to fulfill last year's promise without any increase this year—and it is standing by. Meanwhile, public workers are waiting for a framework agreement.

For this, there is an action and struggle calendar initiated by Hak-İş and Türk-İş. We are following it closely and supporting it. I call on deputies from all political parties serving in parliament, but even though parliament has decided to work until the end of July, the AK Party has told its own group that we will work until the 17th.

They are going to open olive groves to mining exploration and pass a few laws that the wealthy are waiting for. Without passing these laws, without giving a raise to retirees, without giving a raise to minimum wage earners—and we have an excellent formula to protect small tradespeople in the minimum wage increase.

"WE WILL MAKE THE PARLIAMENTARY CALENDAR NARROW FOR AK PARTY MEMBERS"

I explained it in detail last week. We have a correct proposal that directly takes 6,500 liras of the minimum wage increase burden off the backs of small tradespeople, provides 6,500 liras of support to the textile and ready-to-wear sector regardless of the number of employees, and—killing two birds with one stone, though I hope no one actually kills any birds—reflects the increase in social security premium revenues back to the tradespeople, the struggling textile sector, and then to all employers of minimum wage workers.

We have a proposal that costs the state not a single kuruş, but there are AK Party members who ignore these proposals, ignore them, and give each other good news saying, 'Those who want to go on vacation, we'll be at the beach on the 17th, brother.' The nation's wound is bleeding. Parliament is meant to be a balm for the wound. It is meant to heal the wound. It is not meant to rub salt into the wound with such expressions. We will never allow those who try to rub salt into the nation's wound while rushing their own bodies into salty water. Our group will make this upcoming parliamentary calendar narrow for them. We will not send those who do not hear the voice of the nation on vacation.

REACTION TO NEW OPERATIONS

Let us understand why we are in this state. Let us repeat it once more. On March 19, they staged a coup against the future of this nation. There is no doubt that coups are staged against the government. They staged this against the government as well. They staged a coup against those who are currently in power and those who will be in power after the next election, against our presidential candidate, if our nation deems it appropriate.

They staged a coup against the Republican People's Party, which will govern this country in the future. They declared war against the power of the ballot box and democratic politics. Because they could not gain the support of the nation, they pitted the state against the nation. They claim that they can survive through oppression without the consent of the nation and that they can protect their power through this oppression.

We are resisting this in every square, continuing a struggle that began in Saraçhane and then spread to an Anatolian province every weekend, receiving great support from Anatolia. While the shame of this was still ongoing, they inflicted a new shame upon this nation on July 5.

"A MAYOR LIKE ADANA"

This time, they detained three of our mayors—Adana Mayor Zeydan Karalar, Adıyaman Mayor Abdurrahman Tutdere, and Antalya Mayor Muhittin Böcek—in dawn operations. They went to Zeydan Karalar's house. His wife opened the door. Mayor Zeydan is not there. Where is Mayor Zeydan? He went to Gebze to visit his sister. They got the address from Mayor Zeydan's wife. They called Mayor Zeydan on the phone. They went to Gebze. They took him into custody in Gebze. If he were going to flee, he wouldn't have given the address; how would you have found Gebze? But even so, they treated those who should have been summoned to testify with a single phone call—people whom this nation elected with honor and dignity, whom they trusted and said 'you are the trustee of this city'—by discrediting them, putting police on their arms, and when a journalist asked a question, they grabbed and turned them around, detaining them with mistreatment, a treatment they never deserved.

The people of Adana call that Zeydan Karalar a mayor like Adana. In Adana, people from every party give Zeydan Karalar a higher vote in every election.

You conduct polls, and he is breaking records. Abdurrahman Tutdere was elected as a deputy with this group, with us. He is the only deputy from Adiyaman, a lawyer friend.

Every time he takes the floor, he explains the problems of Adiyaman. An earthquake occurred. I was in the earthquake zone for 45-50 days. When I went to Adiyaman every 3-4 days, I never saw Abdurrahman Tutdere anywhere other than at the wreckage site.

One day, his friends called. I was in a town 120 km away from Adıyaman. They said Abdurrahman's older brother, older sister, brother-in-law, and 5-year-old nephew were being pulled out. When I arrived, they were reaching the third body. They wrapped them in a blanket and handed them over. He took them with his own hands and placed them in the car. We went to their village. Up there, in freezing weather, he buried them with his own hands. There was no washing, no shrouding. You know, that was the fatwa at the time. He took their hair with his hands. Three friends from this group, like mountains, had their faces burned from crying under the snow and ice, and those tears had frozen. I saw it with my own eyes. Ensar, Ednan, Ulaş. We said, 'Let us take your arm and take you home.' He said, 'How can I, brother?' He went to the wreckage next door and started waiting with the people. That night, instead of receiving condolences, that Abdurrahman was at other wreckage sites on the 5th and 6th days of the earthquake. Then the election came. We were going to nominate him in Adıyaman. It never crossed my mind.

"THEY WERE LAMENTING WHEN THEY SAW ABDURRAHMAN IN ADIYAMAN"

We have a single deputy in Adıyaman, and it's about nominating him. Those who went came back. In some places they say polls, in others they say that. I looked at the provincial report. When they said there was no need for a poll in Adıyaman, I thought they meant there was no chance of winning the election. Adıyaman had made its decision; it had already chosen and written down Abdurrahman Tutdere as mayor. The party inspector who went, my deputy friend, my party assembly member friend. There is no other possibility. He must be persuaded and nominated. I called him and talked. He said, 'No, we have good candidates,' and so on. I said, 'They say Adıyaman has decided on Abdurrahman.' In Adıyaman, mothers who didn't know Turkish and were wailing in Kurdish would take Abdurrahman's hand and rub it on their eyes when they saw him. Because those mothers wanted it.

Because all of Adıyaman, Turks and Kurds alike, wanted him, and because AK Party and MHP supporters said the right name was Abdurrahman, we nominated him. He broke a record and won Adıyaman.

All of Turkey was surprised that night. We had seen the great support for Abdurrahman in Adıyaman afterward. Now they have taken that Abdurrahman and put him inside. You know that braggart named Aziz İhsan Aktaş who accuses everyone.

He claims, 'Previously, the AK Party was working with the Adıyaman Municipality. I came, I had payments due. Abdurrahman didn't make an agreement or contract, he left it. I will get the money coming from the AK Party.' I went to Abdurrahman; he can't prove the lie, neither HTS records, nor base station data, nor anything else. He sent me to someone. I went to that person. They demanded a 24,000 lira bribe."

One minimum wage. If Abdurrahman Tutdere were sitting here in these rows, his monthly salary would be 7 times the amount demanded. He left this place and went there, to a tiny provincial municipality. They demanded a 24,000 lira bribe. When I paid it, I got the receipt. Supposedly, that money was for settling a restaurant bill. I ask, 'What is this?' It is surely one of the restaurants designated when there was no food left for earthquake victims staying in containers, when food was spilled, or when it wasn't enough. That is what is assumed. Suppose someone came and wanted something from the municipality. 'Settle the bill at this restaurant.' They made him pay for the food that went down the throats of earthquake victims. This is seen as the best-case scenario. They want to arrest Abdurrahman for this now. Today, he is being held at the courthouse in Istanbul. And let me say this much: Abdurrahman did not award a tender. The AK Party member before him did.

HE LISTED THE TENDERS Aziz İhsan AKTAŞ RECEIVED

But look, this Aziz İhsan Aktaş has worked with the Court of Cassation, the Parliament, the State Airports Authority, Turkish Airlines, Pamukkale University, Uludağ University, and nearly 20 public hospitals in different provinces. That is not all. Currently, he works with AK Party-run Metropolitan Municipalities in Trabzon, Kocaeli, Kahramanmaraş, and Ordu; Elazığ and Isparta municipalities; district municipalities in Istanbul like Bahçelievler; and in Şanlıurfa, Haliliye, Karaköprü, Eyyübiye, Ordu, Ünye, Hatay, and Antakya. It never ends. They are all here.

In the previous term, when Balıkesir Municipality, Şanlıurfa, Afyon, Kilis, Yozgat, Uşak, Adana, and Seyhan were under their control, Aziz İhsan Aktaş worked with them.

He worked with Seyhan Municipality when they were in charge. He received a payment after it passed to Zeydan Karalar. Because he sent it to so-and-so while receiving that payment, 11 years later, he has been managing Seyhan for years, but there is nothing. There is no Adana Metropolitan Municipality. He wins again, still nothing. Zeydan Karalar is in custody. I said it on a television program yesterday. The total number of tenders Aziz İhsan Aktaş has received. This is official. You click, click, click, click. What is the name of that system? EKAP? You enter EKAP, the man has received 388 tenders. 300 of them are from the public sector and AK Party municipalities, which is 77 percent. 88 are from CHP municipalities, which is 23 percent. All the mayors involved in these tenders are either arrested or in custody. Some of them even bought an A8 official car from Aziz İhsan Aktaş. Isparta does not even deny it. Every morning, he leaves home and still goes to the municipality in that car. He even put the 'AK' of the AK Party on the license plate. 23 percent, all my mayors are inside. Not a single one is outside. I ask the voters of the AK Party and MHP who have a conscience and possess the wisdom of Anatolia: Is this fair or acceptable? Is it fair or acceptable? Is it fair or acceptable?

"MR. TAYYİP, THIS IS THE ONLY PERCENTAGE WHERE THE AK PARTY SURPASSES THE CHP"

If there is a crime, you find the evidence from the crime, and the suspect from the evidence. You punish them, and you should punish them. But this is the result of an investigation conducted to find something against CHP municipalities. Let me show this to Mr. Tayyip as well. There might be something here that he would be pleased with. It is 77 percent to 23 percent, and the CHP is at 23. This is the only percentage where the AK Party surpasses the CHP. This is the only one. For a week, for a week, it has been one of the weeks with the most activity in politics and the judiciary since March 19.

"HERE IS A ONE-WEEK SNAPSHOT OF TURKEY FOR YOU"

I will do this from now on. I am showing you a one-week snapshot of Turkey. In this one week, mayors elected by the people with record votes were taken into custody. It is understood from just a tweet that the regime no longer has any concern about convincing the nation that there is an independent judiciary.

There is a crime called 'the crime of defeating the AK Party.' They arrested journalist Timur Soykan, who tweeted that they are putting those who defeat the AK Party in jail. They persecuted him for 4 days.

They told her and all journalists that with the travel ban and judicial control, they would have to think twice before posting such tweets from now on. Ayşe Barım is still there.

All of Turkey's award-winning artists were with their managers yesterday. Ayşe Barım was saying 3-4 months ago, 'I don't understand why I came here.' They were telling her she would finally appear in court. They told her she would remain in prison for another 3-4 months.

Yesterday, they took all of these award-winning Turkish cinema and TV actors to the Çağlayan Courthouse and sent them back sad and in tears. These friends receive awards everywhere they go. They received an award last week, too. Look. We are first in Europe in poverty. We are first in the world in food inflation. Look at these gold medals. Can one be proud of these? If you are going to boast, you should boast about your rule of law. We are 117th in the world in the rule of law. Here is a one-week snapshot of Turkey for you. You can be proud of your work, AKP. This is your work. We are proud of the work of these friends, the services of these friends, and the courage and integrity of these journalists. You, too, be proud of your work, AKP. This is your work.

Now, it is not a case of 'the pot calling the kettle black.' It has been 111 days for us. Not a single penny, not a single penny. You know, there used to be a 'blind penny' with a hole in the middle before the Republic. If they could have found even one, they would have thrown it in the air, but they couldn't find one.

But look at what there is. There are things they don't touch. Today, the mayors of Istanbul, Adana, Antalya, Adıyaman, Mardin, Van, Hakkari, Batman, Tunceli, and Siirt are either imprisoned or have had trustees appointed in their place. The total population of these places is 25 million. There are 25 million voters. They have cut off the mayors elected by the votes of 25 million voters—not just the population, but 25 million voters—from serving the Republican, AK Party, and DEM Party voters.

Yet, here, without a single piece of evidence, something independent of these, which had a suspicion of evidence, occurred. We have sent an inspector, and when the report arrives, we will do what is necessary without compromise.

Because we committed the crime of defeating the AK Party, they did not just take these municipalities from our hands; they barred these mayors from serving the nation and barred those who elected them from being governed by those they chose.

GIANT CORRUPTION ALLEGATION IN DENİZLİ METROPOLITAN MUNICIPALITY

On the other hand, we won the AK Party's Denizli Municipality last year. Of course, you will remember this. Between 2019 and 2024, the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality had exactly 37 major corruption files from the previous administration.

I explained it here. An AK Party Metropolitan Municipal Council member in the IMM buys green space, which is worthless, for next to nothing.

They grant a permit for I don't know how many floors on that green space. They sell it back to the municipality for 40 times the price. There are such things. Süleyman Soylu went and put a hold on them.

They are still there. They are sitting at the Ministry of Interior. Neither Süleyman Soylu nor this Minister of Interior did what was necessary regarding that matter. Ankara Metropolitan Municipality brought out 97 corruption files.

They took them, but they are not taking action. There are so many things belonging to Melih Gökçek that you all know about. Now, look at where what those who couldn't find a single penny of corruption in the CHP until today are looking for will come out from.

There is a company called Beltaş in the Denizli Metropolitan Municipality from the AK Party era. It operates a cable car to the Bağbaşı plateau. The General Manager gives instructions to the employees. There are records of all of them. We did it with the General Manager's instruction: 'Issue receipts for one-third of the cash payments, do not issue receipts for two-thirds, do not put it in the cash register, set it aside.'

'You will deliver that money to me.' In Denizli Metropolitan Municipality, every day, one-third of the cable car revenue is receipted, and two-thirds are not; when a sack is full, the money goes to the General Manager by the sack. The person who collects, the person who carries, the person who delivers, and the person who receives are all known.

When the CHP won the election on March 31, they deleted the computer's hard drive and the video recordings on April 1.

But the staff are confessing to this. They say, 'They did this and that, we'll get into trouble,' and they even came and removed the hard drive.

Every day, every three days, they were taking a sack full of money from here. Our people sent the hard drive to be recovered, and it came back with a record showing that exactly 25 million liras in cash were delivered by the sack to the general manager of Beltaş.

This Beltaş also operates restaurants, cafes, kiosks, and a ski resort at 30 facilities. In the interrogations of those working there, it emerges that similar practices were carried out in places where the cash turnover rate is high, and along with those records, 95 million TL were delivered by the sack to the AK Party's general manager, the Beltaş General Manager.

The file is being prepared and submitted to the Denizli Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. There has been no movement for a year, friends. No movement for a year. If they could find a single penny, they would be digging up the garden of Mayor Ekrem's father's summer house, just to find money. There is no money. There is not a single piece of evidence. My dear friends, the votes of 25 million voters in Turkey are either under arrest or under trusteeship, while they have carried away 95 million in sacks, and the ones doing it are the AK Party. I am calling out to the Minister of Justice from here. I am calling out to Erdoğan from here. While the Beltaş file sits there in Denizli, will you continue to sit in your seats so brazenly?

Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç, my fellow soldier Yılmaz Tunç. Regarding this matter, you know, when we say something to the prosecutors, you say, 'Turkey is a state of law.'

I am waiting for a statement on this matter. I am waiting for information regarding the 95 million TL file in Denizli that has been waiting for a year, the 25 million TL from just the cable car, and the 120 million TL file in total. If there is no information, it means the sacks are in the palace.

HE RECOUNTED THE CIGARETTE AND AKP DIALOGUE

If you cannot provide information, it means the sacks are in the palace. There was a taxi driver I used to ride with a lot before I became chairman.

There was a taxi stand. We call from there. A guy comes. Ankara's taxi drivers are famous. He was also complaining about the AK Party, or rather, the President; fuel prices have gone up again. The SCT (Special Consumption Tax) is too high. 'This is too much, that is too much, we can't make ends meet.' I asked, 'Who do you vote for?' He said, 'Honestly, we vote for the AK Party.' I asked, 'Why?' One day he said, 'It's a habit.' I said, 'What kind of habit is this?' He took out a cigarette and said, 'Like this. It's a bad habit. A harmful habit.' At first, he says, every time I get in, it develops. 'Brother,' he says, 'this AK Party is like a cigarette. Mr. President,' he says. 'At first, you enjoy it. Then you get used to it. Then it causes harm, but you knowingly suffer the harm.'

The other day, when a friend got into his taxi, he sent a message of complaint, saying, 'I can't see Chairman Özgür anymore. There are bodyguards, there are cars. He comes and goes, he doesn't stop by.' He also sent his regards. He said, 'Tell Chairman Özgür that I have quit smoking, and I have quit the AK Party. I have no bad habits left.' As a healthcare professional, I was constantly working with him to get rid of these two bad habits. He said, 'Thanks to you, I got rid of both bad habits; I got rid of cigarettes, and I got rid of the AK Party. I breathe much more easily now.' He said, 'I breathe much more easily.' To breathe easily, the AK Party, which was founded 23 years ago as the 'Movement of the Virtuous,' which claimed to hear the voice of the poor and the needy by mentioning its own grievances, which promised to solve problems, end corruption, end poverty, and end bans, had called itself the AKP, the Justice and Development Party, on the day it was founded, while it has now dragged Turkey into bans, everyone into poverty, and itself into corruption up to its neck.

With where they have arrived today, with their outlook, with their refusal to leave the warm halls and air-conditioned rooms in the summer to mingle with the public, and with the condescending language they use toward journalists, intellectuals, and the opposition, they are no longer the Justice and Development Party; they are the party of extreme arrogance.

I invite our entire nation to get rid of the most harmful habit, the party of extreme arrogance. Of course, the voters are one thing; let them struggle, but the executives and high-level bureaucrats of this AK Party, and those they spoil, are very fond of pleasure and live in great luxury.

When he was only 35 years old, a 'mobile guillotine' they spoiled in Istanbul was given the most luxurious official vehicle from the IMM (Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality) while judges more senior than him were riding in modest official cars. One was given to Numan Kurtulmuş. At that time, he was the AK Party Deputy Chairman. May God forgive him, let Mr. Numan explain. He rode in that car, saying he didn't. One shouldn't do that. Why is the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality giving vehicles to the AK Party? But they gave a world of vehicles to the AK Party. Mr. Numan, knowing or not knowing that it came from the IMM, rode in that most luxurious vehicle. They also gave one to the 'mobile guillotine.' Municipalities give vehicles to courthouses. We provide service vehicles, we provide minibuses. They provide official cars.

It is the state's business. They say there are no resources, they say justice is faltering, yet it is provided. But they gave the 'mobile guillotine' a vehicle luxurious enough to be allocated to the AK Party Deputy Chairmanship. This fellow has become spoiled. There came a day when he toured luxury yachts that he could not buy with his 87-year salary.

He examined them with a buyer's eye, bargained, asked for prices, did this, did that. And the renovations started before he even went to this post, which many prosecutors—most of whom live in normal government housing—have never sat in; that's what they say.

Of course, if it started when he went, he couldn't sit there immediately. They did such a renovation that they are going to appoint him as the Chief Public Prosecutor of Istanbul, in violation of the Constitution, from a deputy ministerial position, that is, a political position. Normally, this duty, this appointment, should not be accepted. No one can do the jobs they tell him to do when he goes there. Then it means he has certain conditions.

Those conditions have been met. In a Bosphorus view zone where a citizen cannot even hammer a nail, an incredible villa with a Bosphorus view has been prepared for the gentleman with unbelievable renovations. What is a lodging renovation that costs far more than what the state normally pays?

Money far exceeding that lodging renovation has been spent. Even if we assume the most innocent scenario, he is doing dangerous things. There are secure residential complexes where prosecutors live; go live there. How does the state protect all prosecutors? Let it protect you too. Thick bulletproof glass, swimming pools not in the project, illegal additions—let's build this, let's build that.

I swear I personally heard from three workers who worked there about how one of the family members oppressed them, what they demanded, what they did, and how luxurious it was.

When the day comes, I will let this nation hear it too. But they thought I couldn't find evidence. I said, 'I swear if I find the evidence, I will show it.' The place I covered up here—I am not in a position to commit a crime like revealing the address of a public official fighting terrorism.

I covered the address. But everyone knows they called it a 'prosecutor's building restoration' project. They started the restoration before he even arrived, finished it, and handed it over. There are very different payments made later, but the cost is 40,504,000 TL for renovation. Renovation cost. At today's exchange rate, this money is 56 million TL. I am the child of a retired teacher. A retired teacher who worked for 30 years receives 1,800,000 TL in retirement bonus for 30 years of labor.

This is not a purchase for someone to live in. Just for the renovation, the labor of 56 retired teachers—each waking up for 30 years, washing their face, shaving, having breakfast, putting on a tie, going to school, teaching for 8 hours, swallowing chalk dust, and coming home. The shopping bag is half full. The situation of their children is obvious. To those who pay for the pleasure of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor with the labor of 56 teachers who lived like this for 30 years, may it come out of your nose, I pray. Out of your nose.

I am asking those who love luxury. I am asking those who love luxury. Does a businessman from Van pay off the credit card debts of one of your family members?

Does a businessman from Van deposit cash into your account or credit card at a bank teller window? Did that businessman from Van close all those accounts? He did.

Do I know? I know. Will I prove it? You will see that very soon, too. What did we say, friends? What did we say? Do not oppress. If you live in a glass house, do not turn around and throw stones at your innocent neighbor. What did I say, friends?

We said, 'Son, you hit a hard rock.' You hit a hard rock, a hard rock. From now on, with every subsequent unlawful step, anyone who does not talk about, bring to the agenda, and hold them accountable for the house bought from that luxury structure in Üsküdar, and in the next step, that summer house on the Anatolian side, around Tuzla, is a coward.

HE SHOWED THE MOVEMENT IN THE STOCK MARKET DURING THE OPERATIONS

Let's continue. How are these evils they do to the nation happening now? Where do they lead? Let's show it. I think the photos, accounts, and diagrams I have shown so far are all very valuable and have appeared in the press, but this one is quite striking, friends.

When I saw it, I said, 'Well done.' Look, this is the chart of the Borsa İstanbul 100 index. While Borsa İstanbul was rising on its own in March, when they carried out this coup attempt on March 19, it fell by 8.79 percent.

An incredible amount of money left the stock market. This money headed toward the dollar. How will foreign investors leave? A massive amount of reserves was burned so that the dollar would not skyrocket, and the stock market crashed to this point.

Think about the trend before that old fall since that day. Look, it was heading there. It is never in its old days. It is trying to recover. It is trying to recover. It is trying to recover. There is a day of recovery: June 30. The day when questions were being asked about the Republican People's Party, such as 'Will the party management change?'

On June 30, the day when questions about whether the party would enter a crisis were being asked, the stock market recovered by 5.54 percent when the court decision was postponed. This means that nothing anti-democratic will happen. And it is going on its own course. It is no longer at the very bottom. Because the CHP is putting up a fight. There is a struggle in the squares. There is morale in the opposition. There is hope for democracy, and when the case, which was fluctuating like a closure case for the CHP, did not yield the feared result—which I kept saying it would not—the stock market soared this much and is moving reasonably there. Look.

The day the mayors were arrested was Saturday; yesterday, Sunday, the stock market opened and lost 2 percent. How is it crashing? Today, before I even took the podium, there was another half-point drop. It had fallen a bit more. What is the AK Party doing to Turkey? If you ask what these operations with the judiciary as an apparatus are doing, what people look at to assess a country's situation is the stock market value of the 100 largest companies in that country. The whole world looks at this. How are things going in that country? When Mr. Tayyip does something, this is what happens. When the right things are done, this is what happens. This is the state of Turkey, friends. We will provide this digitally to all members of the press who want it. Everyone can look at it line by line, examine it, and see what they are doing to Turkey's economy and to us. As the saying goes, whatever is in the jar spills out. There is someone who rose from being Mr. Erdoğan's driver to becoming a member of parliament.

HE SLAMMED THE AKP MEMBER ÇAMLI, KNOWN BY THE NICKNAME YELİZ

There is someone who rose from being Erdoğan's driver to becoming a member of parliament. Yeliz. Who wouldn't know this Yeliz? There is an organism called Ahmet Hamdi Çamlı. Does this organism look like a human? When this single-man regime was coming to parliament, while they were trying to change the regime by force and the opposition parties were resisting, during those days of great struggle, someone was making a ridiculous broadcast.

The user's name is Yeliz. Disgraceful comments, a bunch of insults toward opposition deputies, a bunch of obscenities. Then this incompetent person presses a button on the screen. The camera turns.

There is Ahmet Hamdi Çamlı with his disgusting mustache. Yeliz. Yeliz. Yeliz. I apologize to all the Yelizes in Turkey. I apologize to all the Yelizes in Turkey. When you see the Yelizes in Turkey, you say Yeliz, but when you see this one, you say Yeliz. He called 1923 a bloody coup. He talks about founding a new state. Of course, we cannot explain this baseness with ignorance or anything like that.

He is now beyond the measure of negligence and delusion, as Atatürk said in his Address to the Youth; he is on a line of treason. We expected Mr. Erdoğan to condemn this insolence, but he could not.

We expected his party to condemn it. Someone found this sufficient. If someone in the CHP has a slip of the tongue, even if it's just a slip of the tongue, regardless of what the chairman says afterward, regardless of what the group deputy chairmen say. They even sold the tank-pallet factory. They sold it to the Qataris.

Ali Mahir Chairman, who was a new deputy at the time, said during a speech, 'The army has been sold to the Qataris.' You said, 'Oh, it was sold to the army.' Those who stir up Turkey are the ones using these base expressions. Ömer Çelik tweeted something completely hollow. He says: 'The Republic of Turkey is the apple of our eye. We love our republic and we protect it like our own eyes.'

He is supposedly trying to fix the disgrace committed by this Ahmet Hamdi with this. Some have taken this and said, 'Okay, what Ömer Çelik said is valid.' What is much more serious is this: I'll set aside the AK Party. If Tayyip Erdoğan is silent, if Ömer Çelik cannot condemn him by name, if the AK Party cannot take disciplinary action, then Fahrettin, who lines up the ministers for everything, is lining them up. He tells them to stand in a row. He distributes a tweet.

Come on, you have an hour and a half, stand in a row, and they all line up. If Fahrettin Altun lines these ministers up like prayer beads in the direction he points and does not condemn this, then this is a normal thing. Let our nation know this. 90, 95, 97 percent of this country claims to love Atatürk.

The AK Party that is voted for, the AK Party that is voted for, cannot condemn, cannot punish, and is protecting a scoundrel who is hostile to the Republic founded by Atatürk and who calls the proclamation of the Republic founded by Atatürk a 'bloody coup'.

His word is the AK Party's word. What is much more serious is that no prosecutor has initiated an ex officio investigation yet—you know, they initiate ex officio investigations for everything. Those who show up at doors and conduct dawn raids based on the words of a slanderer have not uttered a single word about this, have not gone to take this person in, have not filed a lawsuit against him, and have effectively become an apparatus of the regime. And the shameful part is this: the Republic has given you the title of Chief Public Prosecutor.

Anyone who does not put someone in their place, does not hold them accountable, and does not open an investigation when they call the 1923 founding of the Republic—which you carry in your title—a 'bloody coup' does not deserve that title. May every penny of the salary this Republic pays you be forbidden to you all. May it be forbidden.

I will say this here on live broadcast, as our deputies and group deputy chairmen were already going to inform the group. All our deputies and our 81 provincial chairmen will file criminal complaints against those who do not act ex officio in their own provinces, and one prosecutor will emerge from one of those 81 provinces to hold these dishonorable people accountable. There is one more thing. You know, we ask, what is needed to win? Moral superiority, psychological superiority, majority energy. They ask, 'How is this happening?' CHP is holding the largest rally in Amasya's history in the middle of summer at night. In Bayburt, where it received 800 votes, CHP is holding a rally with 15,000 people. How is this happening? CHP is filling the square in Konya that Tayyip Bey avoids. The moral superiority is here. Look, that organism called Ahmet Hamdi Çamlı put a poll under his disgusting post. 'I agree,' 'I disagree.' The rate of those who agree with him is 5 percent, those who say 'I disagree' are 95 percent. If the prosecutors did not act ex officio, they most likely did not see this post. The number of people who saw the post is 4.4 million in one night. Look at the state of this man, who is known by all of Turkey and with whom 95 percent disagree, who set out claiming to be a deputy of the nation—though he doesn't even say that, he calls himself a deputy of the 'Dersaadet' (Istanbul)—and who shamelessly receives a pension from this parliament with all of your taxes. This is where AK Party politics has arrived. The moral superiority is here, the psychological superiority is here, and the majority energy is here. Take that. Actually, the speech is over, but today, when Mr. Bahçeli was ill, we conveyed our get-well wishes and said we would not respond to him until he returned to his group. We did so. Then he returned to parliament, and we expressed our satisfaction. Last week he held a group meeting and mentioned us quite nicely. We said, 'Since we are not responding, let's not.' It is a good thing we did not respond to those bad words last week.

Today, Mr. Bahçeli gave an important group speech. As I said a moment ago, 111 days after the coup, while nothing has been proven, while the presumption of innocence is being disregarded, while the indictment has not yet been written, and while what we are experiencing is negatively affecting the economy, we have been talking about all of these. I even said from this podium that this is what disrupts internal peace. This is what weakens the internal front. You cannot both say 'let the internal front be strong' and carry out arrests and arbitrary operations. You cannot fail to prepare the indictments. Today, Mr. Bahçeli drew attention to the presumption of innocence in his speech. He demanded that the indictment be written as soon as possible and said that he finds my request, which I have always stated, for the trials to be broadcast live on TRT to be correct and that he supports it. I am saying this here as well: I had said '3T,' and it is seen that we are coming to that 3T. The first T is a terror-free and democratic Turkey, the second is trial without detention, and the third is live broadcast on TRT.

Mr. Bahçeli has said many things. I see this as an important step taken in terms of Turkey's hope of reaching a terror-free state, strengthening the internal front, being one and together, and making Turkey strong when we evaluate the conditions around us.

He said something like this in the processes outside of this. He said, 'Mr. Özgür, you say you will walk on the roads. You can walk.' He also referenced a few poems. Then he finally said, 'But what is this, are you going to stage a coup?'

I would like to answer this question seriously here. Mr. Bahçeli, I am not staging any coup. You know better than anyone what Özgür Özel did, how he opposed that coup, and what position he took on the evening of July 15 when someone attempted to stage a coup.

What I am doing is exercising my right to resist the March 19 coup. I am telling society to exercise its right to resist and to show this together peacefully in the squares. If you say 'trial without detention,' if you say 'let the indictments be written,' if you say 'let the answers of honest people to these slanders be heard on TRT screens in Anatolia and Thrace,' then the Republican People's Party will never have any intention of a coup. You will see, as you have before, that we use our energy to eliminate poverty, to eliminate unemployment, to establish peace in Turkey, to establish brotherhood, and when we go abroad, to explain Turkey's issues rather than the damage this coup has caused to Turkey, just as we use the energy we show to resist this coup.

I value the step taken by Mr. Bahçeli. I evaluate that he has formulated a statement above all the previous words said to me, the evaluations made by the MHP regarding some of our friends that do not observe the presumption of innocence, and that he did this from a correct position. From now on, we will continue to take the steps that fall to us, but let everyone know that as long as the AK Party does not stop its aggression, as long as it does not attack our friends with judicial apparatuses, slander, insults, and blackmail methods, and as long as it does not return the elected officials of 25 million voters to their duties and ensure that their judicial processes are conducted fairly—just as Erdoğan was tried in the past—and that they are tried without detention, the streets belong to us and the squares belong to us.

Final word: since that is the case, let's not sit down and get up again. Thank you. The final word: Will it all be like this, will it be like that, will there be a coup? He mentioned Egypt, he said this and that. Well, you may have forgotten, but we have not forgotten Esma. To those who look at the television and make 'Rabia' signs because a coup was staged against the elected president in Egypt, and then rush to shake hands with the then-Chief of General Staff, the current president: I am speaking to you. When we look at the squares in Egypt, we do not see a coup. When we look at the squares in Egypt, we see Egyptians resisting oppression, resisting pressure, and resisting violence. The Republican People's Party is on the side of those who stand for democracy, not those who stand for coups. And you, the single person called Erdoğan, I will not keep you there with 29.2% of the vote. Just like the day it was founded, just like on Sunday, March 31, the Republican People's Party is Turkey's number one party. Apparently, in an unknown poll that only Erdoğan sees, the AK Party is the first party. If that's the case, Erdoğan, don't worry, I challenge you: bring the election on November 2, let's see, I challenge you, I challenge you.

News Source: 12punto