Breaking News: Özgür Özel is the sole candidate at the 21st Extraordinary Congress of the CHP

The 21st Extraordinary Congress of the Republican People's Party (CHP), which decided to hold the congress to preempt the threat of a government-appointed trustee, has begun.

At the congress where Chairman Özgür Özel is running for re-election, Antalya Muratpaşa Mayor Ümit Uysal and former MP Berhan Şimşek had also announced their candidacies.

ÜMİT UYSAL WITHDRAWS FROM CANDIDACY

Uysal withdrew his candidacy shortly after the congress began. In his statement, Uysal said, "I have decided not to pursue my candidacy in order not to damage my party."

BERHAN ŞİMŞEK FAILS TO REACH REQUIRED NUMBER

Meanwhile, former MP Berhan Şimşek, who had announced his candidacy, was unable to run as he could not secure the required number of delegate signatures.

The main slogan of the congress, held at the Nazım Hikmet Culture Center, was "The will belongs to the nation," serving as a message against the "trustee" debates.

The congress was attended by former chairmen Altan Öymen, Hikmet Çetin, and Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, as well as former SHP Chairman Murat Karayalçın, mayors, honorary members, and delegates.

CONGRESS DIVAN CHAIR ANNOUNCED

CHP leader Özel took the podium to deliver his speech.

Stating that the necessary quorum to open the congress had been reached, Özel announced that Denizli Metropolitan Mayor Bülent Nuri Çavuşoğlu had been proposed by the delegates for the position of Divan Chair and put the motion to a vote.

The proposal was accepted, and the Divan Chair of the 21st Extraordinary Congress of the CHP became Bülent Nuri Çavuşoğlu .

We are holding our 21st Extraordinary Congress. #TheWillBelongsToTheNation https://t.co/dCARskVZql

— Özgür Özel (@eczozgurozel) April 6, 2025

Highlights from Özel's remarks are as follows:

“My dear friends, my dear comrades, welcome to all of you who have shown all of Turkey that the Republican People's Party is the guarantor of this country's history, present, future, and will, by coming here from 81 provinces and 973 districts on a Sunday morning to stand against the conspirators who tried to stain your pure will. You have thwarted the plot set up at 4:59 PM on a Friday evening to serve a trustee notice so that this congress could not be held on an extraordinary day and agenda; you have thwarted the attempts to render the congress announcement void by making us wait for the response period at the Arena Hall; you have thwarted the calculations to cancel the congress by saying, ‘If the quorum is not present at exactly 10:00 AM, we will not allow the congress to proceed,’ despite the party charter they themselves approved years ago.

Hello to those who wave the red flag with the crescent and star alongside the six-arrow flag across the country. Hello to those who keep the hearth of the family home burning in 81 provinces and 973 districts, who brew the tea, and who carry the wood to that hearth to keep it burning. Hello to our devoted, long-suffering organization, which has carried the party on its shoulders even though it has not seen power for half a century, and with whom I am deeply honored to walk the same path. Welcome to all of you. Hello to the social democrats, nationalist democrats, conservative democrats, liberal democrats, Kurdish democrats, and all the democrats of Turkey who believe in the Turkey Alliance, which takes its color from our red flag with the crescent and star, and which forms an alliance not with political parties, but with the nation itself, in the hearts of the people.

Hello to the 10 millions who took to the streets and squares to resist the March 19 coup; to our Esenyurt Mayor Prof. Dr. Ahmet Özer, who is being held in prison unlawfully; to our Beşiktaş Mayor Rıza Akpolat, our Beykoz Mayor Alaattin Köseler, our Şişli Mayor Resul Emrah Şahan, our Beylikdüzü Mayor Mehmet Murat Çalık; to our municipal council members held in Silivri dungeons; to Çiğdem Mater and Mine Özerden, who are held in Bakırköy Women's Prison on our behalf in the Gezi trial despite being acquitted three times, just to intimidate those who might seek justice again these days; to Osman Kavala, Can Atalay, and my dear brother Tayfun Kahraman, who are held in Silivri Prison; and to all the politicians, chairpersons, and co-chairpersons from other political parties who are imprisoned, and

Hello to my brave heart, my lion, who is lying in Silivri Prison, the elected Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and the next presidential candidate of the Republic of Turkey, Ekrem İmamoğlu. A heartfelt hello to my dear young brothers and sisters who say, ‘Mayor Ekrem is the will of Istanbul, he is my will,’ who recognize no bans, no barricades, no obstacles, and who are a hope for their own future and for Turkey; and to every one of their mothers, fathers, and siblings who are separated from them, and to every one of my young brothers and sisters held in Silivri and other prisons. Hello, hello…”

“THE REPUBLICAN PEOPLE’S PARTY IS THE FOUNDING WILL”

 “Why are we here? We are holding our party’s 21st Extraordinary Congress at a time when we are resisting a civil coup attempt against Atatürk’s party and the next President of Turkey. We are here today to thwart the plan to appoint a trustee to our party, which is one leg of the failed March 19 coup attempt, and to show the whole world what the Republican People’s Party means. We are here to defend the future dreams of our members, whose numbers have increased by 35 percent in one year to reach 1.9 million with the unprecedented favor of the honorable delegates of the Republican People’s Party, and of millions of our citizens whose hearts beat in this hall and who have pinned their hopes on us.

The Republican People’s Party is the founding will; beyond being a party, it is the party of millions whom it transformed from subjects into equal citizens. It is a party that achieved great development in a short time and granted many human rights to its citizens long before Western countries did. It is the party that introduced the country to democratic elections and built a multi-party democratic regime, even though it could have continued as a single party if it had wanted to when it held all the power. The Republican People’s Party is the party of İsmet Paşa, who, in a letter he wrote to his son Erdal after the first election he lost, was able to say, ‘My son, this defeat is undoubtedly the greatest defeat of my life. However, it is a victory for Turkish democracy. Democracy has been permanently established in Turkey.’ It is the party of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who, when offered eternal presidency—and there were many who made such offers—emphasized the Parliament, the sovereignty of the nation, and the power of the Parliament by saying, ‘My goal is to eternalize the sovereignty of the nation.’”

“OUR FAITH IN DEMOCRACY IS INFINITE”

“As soldiers of this tradition, our faith in democracy is infinite. The nation has decided; our party has not been the first party for 47 years and has not been able to come to power alone. The nation has decided; the AK Party has been given the authority to govern the country for 23 years. What is essential in democracy is respect for the decision of the nation. The Republican People’s Party has shown this respect, sought the fault and error within itself, and if it has achieved success again after 47 years, it has achieved it within democratic boundaries and at the ballot box. One decides who is a democrat and who is not by looking at what they do when they lose, not what they do when they win.

And we are here today to condemn together an understanding that behaves in a certain way when it wins and in another way when it loses. The nation also made a decision in the March 31 elections. The nation, which made our party the first party after 47 years, relegated the Justice and Development Party to the position of the second party for the first time in 22 years. Our party shattered the 25 percent glass ceiling, which was said to be insurmountable, in the elections it entered with the Turkey Alliance without forming an alliance with any other party. It became Turkey’s first party with 38 percent of the vote. Our party gained the authority to manage municipalities covering seven regions of Turkey, 65 percent of the population, and 80 percent of the economic size. The Republican People’s Party became the only party with provincial municipalities in all seven regions of Turkey. What happened? It showed the success to those who said, ‘You are not present east of Sivas,’ and to those who would say, ‘You are not present in any province of the Aegean,’ but it did not show the arrogance to utter such words.”

“WE ARE HERE FOR THE HOPE OF THE YOUTH”

“On the election night exactly one year ago, on that evening when all roads leading to our party were a flood of people and its lights burned with great enthusiasm until morning, many of you listened to the speech I gave while you were in front of your televisions. In that speech, I said that we would protect unity and solidarity against all kinds of discrimination, that we would ensure an embrace against those who polarize Turkey, that humility, not arrogance, wins, and that we do not see these results as a cause for complacency, but as a duty and a credit opened to us by the voters. I said that this is not a consumer loan, not a credit given to pay off what has been spent or to spend rapidly from now on, but an investment credit for Turkey’s future, for the party of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to come to power again after 100 years, to re-establish democracy, to walk towards the goal of contemporary civilization, and for the country to become enriched and liberated, and that we would know the value of this. And that night, I said this: ‘The young people who had decided to pack their bags and leave have decided to wait for us for one more election.’ That is why we are here for the hope of those young people, my friends.” 

“THEY SAW THAT OUR PARTY’S COMPASSIONATE HAND HAS CARRIED IT TO POWER”

“That day, we set out to serve the citizens, the nation, and the country. Our mayors worked like lions. While providing essential services without fail, they reached out to the poor. Because during one of the greatest economic crises in history, under a government that promised ‘We will raise the minimum wage four times a year’ but did not raise it by a single penny, that reduced the lowest pension—which could buy eight quarter-gold coins when they first came to power—to 2.5 quarter-gold coins, and that sought the nation’s vote while shrinking their bread, the duty fell to the people’s party, to populist municipalism, and to an approach that prioritizes social assistance.”

Our mayors opened nurseries, student dormitories, city restaurants, and retirement homes. They provided Mother Cards to mothers, milk to babies, and protein and meat support to the elderly. They had debts in grocery store credit books erased. They gave scholarships to the children of poor families. They provided social assistance to those in need, regardless of their party affiliation, without letting the left hand know what the right hand was giving. When we measured the performance of our mayors in the first six months after the elections, we saw that while they were elected with 38 percent on election night, they reached 49 percent in response to the question ‘If there were an election today?’, and satisfaction levels were at 58 percent when polled.

It was not just me and the Republican People’s Party administration who saw this. Polling companies in the field during the same period measured the Republican People’s Party not at 48 but at 49 percent, and satisfaction not at 58 but at 60.5 percent for Tayyip Erdoğan. Since that day, we have seen, and they have seen, that the contact the Republican People’s Party has established with the public through municipalism, the compassionate, warm, and sincere hand it has extended to the public, and the inclusive language it uses—far from polarization—have been carrying the CHP toward power with steady steps. Furthermore, after the local elections, we held countless rallies without stopping for a single day, working directly with our organization, without intermediaries, without ignoring the organization, without seeing it as a burden, attributing the faults in the organization to ourselves and the praise to them, strengthening the organization, and together with them, rapidly re-energizing our party in the field, on the streets, and in the struggle.

There were days when we held countless rallies: the Education Rally in Istanbul; the Pensioner Rally in Ankara, where hundreds of thousands of retirees came from all over Turkey to protest the misery raise given to poor pensioners, and where various cameras could not find a single frame to capture the claim that ‘there were no pensioners at the pensioner rally,’ with nearly 150,000 retirees flocking to Ankara from 81 provinces; the Tea Rally in Rize, the most crowded rally in Rize’s history, together with tea producers who turned their backs on Erdoğan in his own hometown; the Wheat Rally in Hayrabolu; the Hazelnut Rally in Giresun; the Pistachio Rally in Gaziantep; the Farmer Rally in Manisa; the Labor Rally in Gebze in solidarity with unions when the minimum wage increase was insufficient; and the Life Rally, where we defended the right to life for all living things—for the lives we lost in Beşiktaş, for the murdered souls, for everyone whose security we defend in this country, for all living beings, for trees, for animals, for all of us.” 

“WE ENGAGED IN A STRUGGLE AGAINST ABNORMAL POLITICS”

“In 17 months, I made 215 separate visits to 54 provinces; I went to 54 provinces 215 times. As we promised, we carried out 13 international visits to 9 countries, and together we conducted a process based on both diplomacy and good relations, ensuring the Republican People’s Party’s recognition and acceptance in the world and in Europe, its representation at the highest level in the organizations it belongs to, and reminding those organizations of Turkey’s justified arguments regarding what is happening in Turkey, while also pointing out the mistakes made in Turkey on the basis of democracy.

We prepared our squares, masses, members, and youth for the streets, squares, rallies, and actions. We followed with great satisfaction that our organization’s capabilities are increasing rapidly, that they are quickly developing their organizational skills, and that this momentum in the Republican People’s Party has given incredible acceleration to the process of young people between the ages of 18-25 joining the party and becoming members. We tried to read the nation’s message at the ballot box correctly. Because the nation told politics, ‘Stop the fighting, solve my problems,’ we engaged in a struggle against abnormal politics.”

We have developed a language that respects the parties we face and their voters, considering the closeness their voters have shown in establishing a relationship with us, sometimes through diplomatic relations and sometimes by reaching beyond their leaders to speak directly to their voters; we have stood behind this. As a result of these efforts, we have continued to keep our party as the leading party in all stages and all surveys. As of July last year, we reached the vote percentage we received in the local elections in the average of six major companies with the answer to the question, 'If the general election were held today, the party I would choose is the Republican People's Party.' So, what did our counterparts, those who hold the authority to govern the country today, do? As I said a moment ago, the democracy test is not passed when you win, but when you lose. The ruling party has shown the whole world that it could not pass the test of losing with what it did after the elections it lost for the first time.

“TURKEY’S LEADING PARTY”

“They could not show the respect for democracy that we have had for 47 years, not even for 47 days, let alone the 47 months until the election calendar would have started if it had been held on time. They did not have the courage to compete with us in service. They did not have the means to compete with us in service. Instead, they attempted to intimidate both our municipalities and the opposition by using public power against their rivals.

They calculated that they could stay in their seats by polarizing the nation again and creating new conflicts. However, they became even weaker with every step they took for this purpose. Instead of giving minimum wage earners and retirees their rights, they deepened the poverty and income inequality in our country even further. They took bans, poverty, and corruption to much more advanced levels.

Those who saw democracy as a train to be boarded when it suited them chose to get off that train quickly after the election they lost. They began to take steps in a planned and systematic way to establish a despotic regime that no longer has the support of the nation and abuses the power of government they hold.

The nation, witnessing all of this, continued to make the Republican People's Party the leading party in all polls. I say with pride that in the March average announced yesterday, covering all polls conducted before the Saraçhane process we experienced, the Republican People's Party is Turkey's leading party today, just as it was on the day it was founded.” 

“THEY CARRIED OUT CUSTOM-DESIGNED OPERATIONS”

“As they faced this reality, they became even more reckless. First, in July 2024, they announced their preparation to collect the SGK debts that AK Party municipalities had not paid for years from our municipalities at once, with interest. They embarked on such a financial operation so that ‘municipalities would enter a financial crisis, could not pay personnel salaries, and services would be disrupted.’ Then, they made plans to stop the social municipal services I just listed by giving instructions on live television to ‘shake down the municipalities,’ targeting the scholarships of children from poor families and daycare centers.”

Not only did they fail to achieve results from any of these initiatives, but they also failed to gain even an ounce of support from the nation, and they continued to melt away. Seeing that it wasn't working, this time they initiated a process on October 9th to betray Turkey's future, through a chief public prosecutor they appointed in Istanbul. I shared this coup attempt plan with all of you at our group meeting back then, saying, 'There is a preparation for a coup attempt against Turkey's next president, against his potential rival; a coup mechanism is at work.' They tried to behead, silence, intimidate, and leave no strength to object when the day came for anyone who opposed the government, using a specially tasked judicial apparatus that even the Minister of Justice—who was dragged from court to court to tarnish justice—could not command. And by starting a wave of lawlessness ranging from politicians to academics, journalists to artists, bar associations to business people, they made arrests for crimes that do not even carry a single day of prison time through carefully selected operations that could intimidate all segments of society, or by putting people in positions where they are served with images of them in handcuffs, they tried to make them unable to object, tweet, or make statements ever again. By starting a witch hunt based on images from 12 or 13 years ago, they carried out specially designed operations to spread the feeling that things like gathering on the street similar to Gezi, especially protesting at night, would be punished by the state even 14 years later, even 12 years later.

For this, they used RTÜK, TRT, and all state institutions as tools. They made opposing the AK Party government the only official crime. Yet, those who did not speak up against drug barons, gangs, and mafias while they were crushing the nation, and those who demanded amnesty, saw the nation's opposition to the AK Party government as the only reason for detention and arrest. And their primary goal was to block Ekrem İmamoğlu, who defeated Erdoğan's candidates once in Beylikdüzü and three times in Istanbul. So much so that they demanded separate political bans and 25 years of imprisonment in five different cases. Those who disrespect the will of the nation did not hesitate to pit the state against the nation. Against these attacks, the nation was supposed to either stay silent, cower, stop, retreat, and be afraid as they wanted, or the nation was going to resist this coup. And at that moment, while the nation was in dire straits, in its most difficult days, whoever they looked into the eyes of to draw energy, they turned and looked there; they looked into the eyes of the party of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

“OUR MEMBERSHIP HAS REACHED 1 MILLION 900 THOUSAND”

“Instead of surrendering, instead of staying silent or cowering, we decided to stand up and challenge them. As the Republican People's Party, seeing that this government has nothing left to offer this nation—and having already said 'If there is no livelihood, there will be an election,' we saw the nation's demand for an early election, which was 23 percent on March 31, climb toward 60 percent—we set out by saying, 'The candidate for an early election will also be determined early. Since you are afraid, we are determining our candidate.' For this, as we promised before, we fulfilled our commitment to hold a primary election with all members.

In February, we kept registrations open to the party with the goal of increasing our membership, which was 1.5 million, to 1.6 million, adding 100,000 new members. I would like to express with great pleasure that these figures reached 1 million 750 thousand by the end of February, and with the continuation of this momentum, they have reached 1 million 900 thousand as of now. Just as they canceled the Istanbul election during Ramadan in 2019, six years later, again during a month of Ramadan, again at an iftar table, they started the coup they planned by canceling a diploma obtained 31 years ago, and the next morning, hours after the diploma cancellation, by carrying out an operation against Ekrem İmamoğlu and his friends at the time of suhoor on March 19. They made the four-day detention period coincide with the primary election date. On the day of the primary election, when we put the ballot box in front of the nation, they brought Ekrem İmamoğlu before the judge.”

“THEY VIRTUALLY SENT THE MESSAGE: ‘OUR TARGET IS CLEAR, WE HAVE BLINDED OURSELVES’”

“They virtually sent the message, like the message-laden actions of the Italian mafia, by applying to the university for diploma cancellation on the day Ekrem President submitted his primary election documents to the party, by having a diploma canceled by a board irrelevant to the university board of trustees—which is in their own sphere of sovereignty—at iftar time on the day they received intelligence that the faculty he graduated from would not cancel the diploma at the meeting to be held on Wednesday, by detaining the candidate on the morning of the day four days before we were to determine the candidate with our members, exactly four days before the voting hours, and by bringing the candidate before the judge on the day the ballot box was to arrive, they virtually sent the message: ‘We have nothing to hide. Our target is clear. It is clear how much we have lost our minds to get results, how much we have blinded ourselves.’ We responded to every one of their steps together with determination and courage.

When they took the candidate to the Vatan Security Directorate, we defined it as a solidarity ballot box, saying, ‘The ballot box is no longer just for the 1 million 750 thousand members of the Republican People's Party, but for all democrats who want to resist this coup attempt.’ We called on our members, ‘Inform your neighbor, spouse, friend, and acquaintance. Encourage them to vote. Accompany them to the ballot box.’ Our organization, which has grown more confident every day, which has tasted and succeeded in being side-by-side, being on the street, working for its party, and getting results, stood up with an incredible rise. Against the pro-government columnists who wrote that day, ‘If it stays below 1 million 750 thousand, 800 thousand, İmamoğlu's candidacy will be illegitimate,’ and against a circle of interests hoping for this, they came with 96 percent participation, voted, and went down in history. This organization did not just come and vote and go down in history itself. This organization, that day, 1 million 650 thousand people, showed 14 million citizens that the primary election ballot box of a political party they were not previously members of, and perhaps did not even know the location of, could be a democratic space where they could show solidarity. I kiss each and every one of you on the forehead on behalf of our organization, which brought the motivation to bring out the 96-year-old grandmother climbing the stairs with two canes in her two hands, the 104-year-old grandfather running to the ballot box, and the three-month-old baby in its mother's womb, friends.”  

“WE REPELLED THE COUP ATTEMPT AT SARAÇHANE WITH 1.2 MILLION PEOPLE”

“Of course, that primary election motivation; it was the day of the March 19 coup attempt. The target of the coup was undoubtedly the elected official of Istanbul; our next presidential candidate. A target location; the trust of Istanbul, Saraçhane, and we saw from the file, which was supposedly associated with terrorism in the morning, that they intended to appoint a trustee there. At that moment, going out on the streets in Istanbul was almost banned. It was banned for five days for three people to come together, make a press statement, gather, walk, or hold a rally. When we heard about that ban, the decision we made was to go to Saraçhane, to accept the trust of Istanbul as a trust as long as Ekrem İmamoğlu was not there, to protect it day and night, and to invite the people of Istanbul to this protection. We were on the historical peninsula. They removed all the bridges on the peninsula that are crossed by bridges. They closed all the roads. They placed armored police vehicles (TOMA) and barricades. They gave orders to our dear police officers, who emerged from the bosom of our nation, not to let the children of the nation step out of the university, not to set foot on the historical peninsula. They threatened the chiefs and directors in the police department, saying, ‘If a thousand people gather, you are reassigned. Determine the place to go yourselves.’ When our call time came that evening, we repelled the coup attempt all together with the largest crowd in the history of Saraçhane, first 155,000 people, then 220,000 people, then 550,000 people, and 1.2 million people who rushed to Saraçhane after doing their duty on Sunday evening.” 

“THEY ARE AFRAID OF ELECTIONS, THE BALLOT BOX, AND THE NATION”

“In the meantime, the nation repelled this coup, but we were left with a junta in front of us. In Turkey, on one side are those who want to polarize, on the other side are those who want to embrace the nation; on one side are those who demonize, on the other side are those who respect the nation and its will despite everything, even if they voted for that government, and who believe in the founding codes, brotherhood, unity, and solidarity of this country. Today, there is a balance in Turkey that the nation will resolve again. The coup plotters, that is, those who planned the coup, remain as a junta imprisoned in the offices in the palace, ministries, and government departments due to the results of the previous election.

But the streets, the squares, the will belong to the people, to the nation, and are with us. That junta is holding our friends, led by our Mayor Ekrem, captive in various prisons today. Today, Turkey is governed by a junta that is afraid of elections, afraid of its rivals, and afraid of the nation. Tayyip Erdoğan has not turned into a president who has the support of the people behind him, but into a junta leader who targets those who have the support of the people and those who could be his rivals. Because he no longer has legitimacy. He is afraid of elections, the ballot box, the streets, and the nation. It is time to dismantle that junta through democratic means. The will in this hall today is the will that will dismantle that junta. It is the will that will save Turkey from a handful of coup plotters. Turkey is greater than a handful of coup plotters. It is the nation that brings the state into existence. The nation is the true owner of this country. It will come to the ballot box, it will finish it, it will send the junta away. Because the will belongs to the nation, and no one can defeat the will of the nation.”

“THE FILES ARE EMPTY”

“Today, all the files that keep our presidential candidate and our friends inside are completely empty. The coup was rushed, caught unprepared, and they were disgraced by the work they did to catch up with the primary election without being able to fabricate evidence for the slanders they made. For example, there is a company that issued invoices to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) until 2021, that is, after 2019 when Mayor Ekrem was elected, for two years. This company issued these invoices, received its money, and when its contract ended, it never went there again. It went somewhere else. This company won the tender in 2015, its tender, which was extended for two years and two years, was extended before the 2019 elections, it did its job in those two years, rented the billboards, received the invoice it needed to receive, paid what it needed to pay, and withdrew.

While they were slandering the İBB and writing ‘It is understood that they issued fake invoices’ for everyone doing business with the İBB, they also wrote this company. Even though this company has not received any work from the İBB since that day, and the previous invoices also stemmed from its previous contract, this company, which has been organizing Teknofest for the last five years and was exempted from taxes and tender legislation by presidential decree for the Century of Turkey campaign, which is used as the sole firm by the Presidential Communications Directorate, and which issued 1.7 billion in invoices to 18 ministries just for a part of the Century of Turkey campaign, this company is the closest to Tayyip Erdoğan. This company is the sole interlocutor of Fahrettin Altun. While the same secret witness was slandering everyone who issued invoices, this company was mixed in with this haste, and along with those arrested with these secret witness slanders, it was taken into custody, and in the morning, a phone call went to someone very close to the President, and upon his instruction, it was released from the branch.”

We were invited to a room along with our 'caught in the act' scenario and served up for a staged arrest. I would like to remind you all, in front of the entire Turkish public, once again of the lie that the company behind Teknofest and the Century of Turkey is a collaborative company that issued fake invoices to Ekrem İmamoğlu. And let me say this much: they are accusing our Mayor Ekrem of corruption and aiding terrorism. They have nothing in their hands. There is no evidence, no proof. Certain deranged individuals who appear on television from time to time—whom we are tired of refuting—who claim that we or Mayor Ekrem were warned about certain names previously included in municipal lists and that we insisted on this, are slanderers, liars, and defamers, and are entirely part of a perception operation. As the Chairman, I, and we who represent the will of our party—which is united as one body in this hall—across all of Turkey, vouch for the integrity of our Mayor Ekrem and all our mayors as much as we vouch for our own.

“NOTHING HAS EMERGED TO EMBARRASS US”

“While it is clearly written in the decisions of the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights that the testimony of a secret witness alone cannot be the sole reason for anyone's arrest or conviction, the slanders of secret witnesses—who are harassers, slanderers, smugglers, and fraudsters with nearly 100 criminal records—and certain cronies who used to do these jobs at the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) and who fled from the clean, transparent tenders published by the İBB, have neither found acceptance in the nation's conscience nor has anything emerged in the interrogation records to embarrass us.

Those who prepared the conspiracy spoke of a MASAK (Financial Crimes Investigation Board) report in December, January, and February. However, the prosecution only requested the MASAK report on March 3rd. For a report they wanted written in a week, they could only force an assistant specialist to agree to it by March 10th; they could not find a specialist, a senior official, or a manager at MASAK to sign this report. It was only through the personal pressure and influence of Mehmet Şimşek, and the task given to Mehmet Şimşek by Tayyip Erdoğan, that an assistant specialist was made to prepare a report. All account movements accused and shown as suspicious in the report have been proven one by one in the defense.

Example: 'You bought a plot of land 15 years ago.' Mayor Ekrem: 'Yes, the money I paid is not even one-twentieth of the title deed value.' 'This was given to you as a bribe. You paid 5 percent of the money and got the whole title deed. Look at its value.' When Mayor Ekrem turned to his lawyer 14 years ago regarding this matter and said, 'We bought that place with a loan,' and when it was seen that the one-twentieth amount was the money paid from Mayor Ekrem's account and that the 20-fold amount was a loan used from a public bank, and that the money passed from the bank's account to the person's account, the prosecutor just said, 'Oh, okay, that's how it is,' and moved on. The MASAK report fell apart piece by piece; it could not be used as evidence for an arrest, and the perception operation aimed at deceiving the nation was demolished right there.” 

“WE GLADLY PUT THEM ON OUR LISTS”

“On one hand, they are trying to associate Mayor Ekrem with terrorism in order to appoint a trustee to the İBB, and what they are talking about, the work being done, is 'urban reconciliation.' Let us be clear. I am not afraid of the word or the definition of 'urban reconciliation.' However, this is a definition used by the DEM Party. It is a decision made by their own Party Assembly, stating: 'We will win in provinces where we can win; instead of unconditionally supporting the opposition in places where we cannot, if the candidate is someone we believe will not commit urban crimes, will not violate rights, and will not discriminate, we will approach it from the point of urban reconciliation.'

The Republican People's Party does not reject this definition of 'urban reconciliation,' but it does not criminalize the words DEM, DEM-origin, Kurdish, Kurds in the west, or Kurds in the east. Just as it includes them in its lists, it also includes many names who were previously with the AK Party, MHP, and İYİ Party, calling this the 'Turkey Alliance' and stating that it embraces all colors. Look, in the investigation phase where they want to arrest Mayor Ekrem, arrest him for terrorism, and appoint a trustee, what they ask him in the file is this: 'The aim of achieving a certain quota in municipal councils in western provinces and districts through urban reconciliation, even if they cannot win the municipalities, so that they have a say in municipal council decisions, take part in local governments, and become a political balancing factor...' Look at the 'crime'... In these elections, just as we included AK Party, İYİ Party, and MHP names and opinion leaders in our lists within the Turkey Alliance, we gladly and wholeheartedly included Kurds who have or have not engaged in politics with the DEM Party in the past, who may or may not have party membership, but who are honest, hardworking, and representative figures capable of mobilizing the masses. I have a letter under my signature sent to the mayors and district presidencies they are accusing, ensuring this was achieved.

As a result of the Republican People's Party's field investigations, reports from you and our MPs, polls, and political consultations, we had previously stated that the decision regarding the lists—where names from the four parties I just mentioned within the scope of the 'Turkey Alliance' were not wanted on the lists by our mayors, either by saying 'They were our rivals in the past' or 'I want to create my own list'—was a central decision. I am saying it here once again. I wish the prosecutor's definition of 'city consensus' could be implemented in such a way that Kurds in the west could fully find representation, and not just Kurds, but representatives of all parties that cannot win elections in the municipal council could be included, so that the consensus of that city could unite for the best service to that city. Whether they call it 'city consensus' or what we call the 'Turkey Alliance,' I, as the Chairman of the party, state that I am the one who gave the instructions for whatever our mayors are being accused of in this process, and I clearly state that I am the one responsible. 

“THEY WILL GIVE THE STRONGEST RESPONSE TO THE GOVERNMENT THEMSELVES”

“Our party is the party of Kurds, just as it is of every segment of society. But the government considers the representation of Kurds in the municipal council a crime. We stand for peace. We support peace. We express our own proposals. For years, we have consistently advocated for any initiative where the terrorist organization would lay down its arms and the problems of the Kurds would be overcome through democratic means. We continue to advocate for this. But the government we face does not hesitate to label Kurds running in elections in the west as terrorists. The conspiracy set up against Mayor Ekrem is, in one respect, a conspiracy against the Kurds' right to be elected and their right to vote. Kurds can trust the Republican People's Party, but they will give the strongest response to this AK Party government, which has deceived them many times, accused them at every opportunity, punished them, and oppressed them, themselves. If there are still trustees today, if elected politicians are still in prison, every word spoken about a solution is being hollowed out. The solution to the Kurdish issue lies in the democratization of Turkey. Turkey will democratize, we will solve all its problems together, and we will make every effort to ensure that this result, which will be removed from the government's field of interest calculations, is resolved in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey with transparency, sincerity, and social consensus. We are the guarantee for the Kurds as well, and all political parties that do not devalue them are valuable to us. However, I clearly state that we will not be involved in any business where we cannot look into the eyes of the mothers and children of our martyrs and our veterans, who have paid the greatest price during the terror process.”

“I WILL DISGRACE THEM BOTH IN TURKEY AND THE WORLD”

“Now they have fallen into such a state that the MASAK report is nothing more than a bag of napkins. Try to find evidence in the file to support the secret witness statements; you won't find it. They couldn't put forward a single piece of evidence. They are going to write an indictment, MASAK has exploded, there is no evidence, the contradictions in the statements of false witnesses, secret witnesses, and people like Çınar and Meşe are being caught by lawyers and thrown in their faces. The solution is to find false witnesses. They have drifted to such a point that they are calling the owners of companies that used to work for the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and now work in the public sector, at the Anadolu Agency, in ministries, and at the Presidency, and are trying to force them into false testimony through meetings.”

Sometimes at the Istanbul Courthouse, the so-called Palace of Justice, sometimes at judges' houses, and sometimes in completely different places. We have detailed information about each of them. And when people under pressure say, 'I didn't go there, Istanbul is not for me, I already have work here,' those who say, 'You earn your bread from here. What would it hurt to sign this statement for a bribery ring that needs to be exposed there? What would happen if you said this?' and those who kick out of their offices anyone who says, 'It would be a sin, it would be slander,' and threaten them by saying, 'You will get those tenders,'—the fact that they have diplomas from law schools and that they have moved so far away from the moral ground to create allegations in front of members of the world's most sacred profession, the legal profession, is a sign that if we haven't defeated the government that brought them to these positions in 23 years, the greatest responsibility lies with us. We will definitely succeed by winning the first elections and reintroducing this country to democracy, doing whatever is necessary for all of it.

We will eventually see the days when the handful of gangs in the judiciary are put on trial, the days they are put on trial. I know that those who used the expressions 'You have a 1.5-year-old, a 3.5-year-old daughter. Look, I'm here for the last time. I'll leave the screen, you won't see me or your child for 10 years' to female prisoners in Silivri via SEGBİS are trying to have the recording of that SEGBİS meeting deleted after this statement reached us. I am striving to ensure that those conversations appear on television screens as soon as possible. Eventually, I will disgrace them both in Turkey and the world. I promise you.” 

“CHALLENGING THEM IS OUR DUTY”

“And it is my duty to repeat a challenge and an expression of self-confidence from here. Tayyip Erdoğan, you used to say to the late Baykal—may God have mercy on his soul—‘They are the lawyers of this case, and I am its prosecutor.’ You were taking the place of Zekeriya Öz. Now I say to Erdoğan: I am the lawyer for Ekrem İmamoğlu, for this case, and for these lawsuits. If you are the prosecutor in place of this Akın Gürlek, and if you have the courage, bring the regulation and let us pass it quickly. Let’s do it this week. For the defendants who request it—not that it will be for every case—but when requested, let’s open it to live broadcast. And let TRT broadcast live your slanders, Akın’s slanders, and the evidence with which we refute each and every one of them.”

“Let’s see whether this nation rewards slander or stands by a clean son of the homeland, a presidential candidate. I challenge you. In the pro-government media, they claimed ‘560 billion in corruption at the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.’ They couldn’t prove a single lira of it. In the process that began with the detention of Mayor Ekrem, they sold 30 billion dollars from this nation’s treasury. In other words, the price our nation has paid for a single person to sit in that seat is this: If we divide it among 86 million citizens, from a one-month-old baby to our 104-year-old uncle, they have stolen 13,500 liras from each of us. Those who seize the mandate of an elected mayor, a 31-year-old diploma, and the assets of companies have shouted to the whole world that no document issued by the state in this country has any guarantee or validity.”

“This is the greatest harm that can be done to the economy. Interest rates are rising and inflation is soaring because they are afraid of competing with Ekrem İmamoğlu. Just yesterday, they raised electricity prices by 25 percent. The nation is paying the bills for political operations. There is something called a risk premium. It determines the amount of interest for the municipality, the ministry, the Treasury, and private companies when they seek funds from abroad. The risk premium jumped to 279 on the morning of March 19 when the coup attempt began; everyone was very worried. Today, it is 320. It is this very mentality, which does not think of the nation but only of its own power, that has pushed the risk premium—which is below 100 in comparable economies—up to 320.”

“Mehmet Şimşek is holding meetings with foreign investors and trying to attract money to Turkey. Two of the invitation letters he sent while going to one of these meetings belong to TÜSİAD executives. Yet, those executives have travel bans because of the economic criticisms they made from their own podiums in the business world just before this judicial process. In the place where Mehmet Şimşek went to make his word heard abroad, the TÜSİAD President, who exports to 70 countries, cannot attend the meeting he was invited to because of a travel ban. When they ask, ‘What crime did he commit?’, they say, ‘He criticized the government.’ Mehmet Şimşek is trying to persuade those people and find money. Mehmet Şimşek is the person who appears democratic to the world but is, in reality, the financial arm of the junta in Turkey. We will continue to expose this. And let us all see the work being done.” 

“I WOULD BE A DISHONORABLE PERSON IF I TOOK A STEP BACK IN EXPLAINING THIS COUP”

“We all wish that yesterday, parties from the Party of European Socialists—extremely powerful parties from all countries in Europe, some in government and some in opposition—came to support Turkey. They came to support the Republican People’s Party. While the European Union, with its joint decisions taken by social democrats, conservative democrats, greens, and right-wing parties last week—for example, by canceling the Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly to be held in Turkey on April 28, by canceling the European Parliament’s EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee Meeting on April 14-15, and by canceling the visit of Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos to the Antalya Diplomacy Forum and her meeting with Hakan Fidan—was taking a stance against Turkey as a whole, our friendly and sister parties consisting of the left-wing and social democratic parties of that parliament visited our party yesterday under the leadership of Mr. Papandreou, the former Prime Minister of Greece and a dear friend of our late İsmail Cem, a friend of Turkey. We thank them for their contribution to peace, for the efforts they made in the past for Turkish-Greek friendship, and for the efforts they show today for Europe as a whole to stand up for Turkish democracy. We are the main opposition party in Turkey. We are Turkey’s party abroad. As the participants confirmed yesterday, where 86 parties from 77 countries signed for the Republican People’s Party’s full membership in the European Union, we have all seen what the events in Turkey—abolishing the ballot box, ignoring the results, staging a coup against future rivals, and doing so by instrumentalizing the law—have done to Turkey in the eyes of the European and world public. Now, expecting us to surrender to a cliché, they will try to set us back… ‘Are you complaining about Turkey abroad?’ When we were explaining to the world what was done on February 28 regarding the headscarf issue, or when we formed a delegation to travel across Europe to speak against the party closure case, or when they knocked on our door the morning after July 15 saying, ‘Republican People’s Party, your international relations are good. Let’s explain this coup and these FETÖ members together,’ those who did not complain about Turkey abroad then are now trying to make us forget the reality that human rights violations and democracy issues in a country are not considered internal affairs in the international arena, and they are trying to set us back. I would be a dishonorable person, a scoundrel, if I took a single step back in explaining the unlawful coup carried out by this junta government, whether on the street, in Parliament, or anywhere in the world.” 

“THEY WILL NEITHER TRUST YOUR BONDS NOR COME TO INVEST”

“We are the ones struggling for foreign investment to come to Turkey. What is the hope of full membership in the European Union? What is the rule of law? What does it mean to defend a state of law? But what does it mean to remove legal guarantees? You are canceling a diploma 30 years later. You are canceling the mandate of Istanbul, whose name is known by those who don’t even know the name of Turkey. You cannot stomach the mandate given to an elected Mayor, the President of the Balkan Cities Union, so you set a trap and throw him inside. Do you know what this is? Let’s be in a dream, in a dream: The world’s largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380. Let the 600 richest people in the world be inside. Let there be dollars, gold, and all their wealth in the cargo hold. They have decided to come to Turkey. Mehmet Şimşek and Erdoğan are waiting in the tower. They have gathered the nation there too. You make an announcement, ‘All the world’s investments are coming to Turkey. The plane has entered our airspace.’ Applause, chaos. Tears on A Haber. The plane approaches and asks for landing permission. When landing permission is granted, Tayyip Erdoğan runs and turns off the runway lights. The plane aborts the landing and goes to other countries. Then, when someone asks, ‘Why did you turn off the lights?’, they say, ‘Why are you saying this?’ Capital in the world wants legal predictability and guarantees. If you cancel the mandate of the main opposition or the diploma of an elected mayor in front of the whole world just because they are rivals, they will neither trust your bonds, nor your commitments, nor will they come here to make any investments. Today, the junta members and the democrats are in two separate camps. The junta members have risked impoverishing, indebting, and ruining the country, and have risked dragging the nation into misery just for their own power. The guarantee of democracy, of a wealthy Turkey in the future, of trade, and of the laborer receiving the reward for their sweat is Atatürk’s party, the Republican People’s Party.” 

“THEY WANTED TO MAKE US SPEAK ABOUT A SLANDER, WE DID NOT”

“Let us briefly recall the process from this perspective as well. One leg of the March 19 coup attempt was the Republican People’s Party (CHP). Didn’t we all wake up that Monday morning to this? ‘A trustee for the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) this week, a trustee for the CHP, a trustee for the Istanbul Bar Association.’ Because they wanted no one left to defend, they wanted the hierarchy there to be broken, the hierarchy of the Republican People’s Party to be broken. They wanted them to appoint a trustee to the İBB and say, ‘We have gotten rid of the thieves, the corrupt, and the terrorists.’ They wanted all channels to broadcast this, for no other voice to be heard. They wanted this nation to surrender to this mediocrity. It was exactly at that point that we stood up, my friends. One of the targets was the Republican People’s Party. While we were struggling in Saraçhane, the coup plotters—those who had tried and failed five times to plan the appointment of a trustee to our party—intended to do it once more. Furthermore, they tried to smear the pure will of the delegates in this hall with lies and slanders. In Bursa, a lunatic, whom only the government gives credence to, had slandered and insulted our Bursa Provincial Chair. He rightfully filed a criminal complaint against this lunatic. In November 2023, instead of this lunatic being punished, the file was sent to Ankara. The file was kept open in Ankara for a year. In fact, the file, which should have been closed in 10 days and contained nothing, was kept open. Tayyip Erdoğan spoke of ‘shadows’ over our congress every three months. When no one from the Republican People’s Party said a word to these claims of shadows, he would say it again three months later. Three months later, again… Everyone knows that a slander thrown by one party at another party’s congress will not stick. What is the point of turning around and addressing a slander thrown by another party? They tried to lure us into that trap, to make us speak about this slander. We did not speak, we were patient. We did the right thing.” 

“HERE ARE 1,300 CELL PHONES, IS THERE EVEN ONE PURCHASED FROM THE SAME DEALER?”

“When it was seen what happened when the truth of that day began to be discussed, they tried to find the ground they were looking for by using convenient tools, false witnesses, and types who had nothing to do with the CHP being portrayed as if they were from the CHP. However, they started to call for statements and pursue a file they hadn’t opened for a year. Just as we did not allow a trustee to be appointed to the İBB, we stood extremely firm against those who wanted to appoint a trustee to our party. It reached such a point: they requested a MASAK (Financial Crimes Investigation Board) report, MASAK. HTS records. The information given to us after looking at the account movements of 1,300 delegates is that our MASAK report is spotless. I know that everyone in this hall has a clean conscience, everyone’s conscience is clean.”

“But on the other hand, some people in Istanbul, who think they are the Chief Prosecutor of Turkey, continue to produce slanders and insults. From there, false statements are being served, and absurd claims are being discussed on pro-government channels or channels that appear to be opposition but are tasked with creating controversy around the CHP. Oh, what lies they didn’t tell… That 1,300 cell phones were distributed to each of you. Now I am going to do something. I must state clearly here that the Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Ankara, unlike the slander-focused one in Istanbul, should be looking for evidence, which is their duty. They are looking at account movements to see if the slanders are true. They are looking at that to see if it is true. One of the duties of prosecutors is to collect evidence in favor of the accused. So, shall we do this? You know how in those videos, the ‘uncle’ figure tells the young person who complains about Turkey to ‘show your phone’—now, against those who make this slander, our 1,300 delegates, take out your phones.”

“Take out your phone, let me see, show the phone. Hey, Mr. Prosecutor, we came here today so that you could collect evidence. Can you see 1,300 identical phones here, of the same brand, with consecutive serial numbers? The average income of this hall is 60,000 liras. If the MPs don’t raise it, it’s 50,000 liras. Each of these phones is currently signaling to the same base station. The day, date, model, and place of purchase are known through the IMEI number. It is known how long it has been inserted into this line. 1,300 phones bought with sweat and tears are signaling to your base station to produce evidence in our favor. This is the Republican People’s Party. Here are 1,300 phones of the same brand for you; is there even one purchased from the same dealer? Thank you, friends. It is not you, but those who slandered you who have now been disgraced.”

“THEY ARE PALACE SYMPATHIZERS MASKING THEIR FACES”

“Those who tell the lie that ‘you took this from here or there’ to my lion-hearted delegates in this hall, who work with sweat and tears and have an average income of 50,000 liras, are themselves earning 120,000 liras in salary and are touring and negotiating for a 90 million lira luxury yacht—in old money, 90 trillion. Then they say, ‘1,300 phones were given. There was a cold wallet inside. And there was bribe money in that cold wallet.’ Look, look, look. A person judges others by their own character. Do you know what a cold wallet is? It’s where dirty money is converted into crypto and loaded into that wallet. For example, someone who received a large sum of money as a bribe from a big businessman during a past public duty knows how to smuggle it abroad with a cold wallet.”

Mr. Chief Prosecutor, there is no one in this hall who knows what a cold wallet is, nor is there anyone who bought a phone without earning it through the sweat of their brow. But I know who uses the cold wallet, and God willing, we will hold them accountable when the day comes. They also shamelessly say, 'Those who are complaining are CHP members.' They say, 'We have no fault; the CHP members are accusing themselves, they are the ones talking.' I am saying it from here, I am addressing Erdoğan: There are no such CHP members in this party. They are not CHP members at all. They are palace supporters hiding behind masks; you cannot fool anyone by calling them CHP members. They are not CHP members. A collaborator who has fallen into a pit of self-interest cannot be a CHP member.

Let no one try to attribute to the Republican People's Party the actions of those who expected defeat rather than victory in the March 31 elections, and who told the party's Chairman that he would 'be gone by April 1st.' If you do that, this hall will rise to its feet and put you in your place. This is the Republican People's Party, this is it. These are the owners of the March 31 victory. These are the honorable, conscientious, brave, and determined children of this party. I will not let anyone slander these children, and I will not let anyone exploit them for their own interests or ambitions. The Republican People's Party congress is the 1919 Sivas Congress. It is the congress that rejected mandates and tutelage, and gave the nation the task of organizing liberation and declaring independence. The will in this hall is the will of the Sivas Congress. The will in this hall is the will of the congress that brought social democracy to power in 1972. The will in this congress is the will of Hikmet of the Medical School, who was able to say to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, 'If you accept the idea of a mandate, we will reject you too.' The will that resisted the March 19 coup plotters, and the will that did not surrender its party to a handful of fanatics, is the will of this hall.

“I AM APPEALING TO THE CONSCIENCE OF AKP AND MHP VOTERS”

“We will continue on our path with unity, solidarity, and determination. But I would like to appeal to the conscience of AK Party and MHP voters. During the holy month of Ramadan, they violated the rights of others. During the holiday, they separated people from their families and children. They have been keeping 18-19-year-old youths, all of our children, in prison for days for a crime that carries no prison time. What will these coup plotters and junta members, who violated the rights of others thinking they would not be held accountable today, do in the Great Court? To what conscience, to what morality, to what religion, to what kind of piety does it conform to slander people's personal honor with bribery and accuse their party of collaborating with terrorism just to maintain power? Therefore, please, from now on, question these slanderers and accusers, and think that the target of the slanders they cast is your own child, yourself, and your own conscience, and please hold them to account. He who remains silent in the face of oppression is a silent devil. Those who hold power today do not want to establish justice, but rather the false order they have created themselves. Rights are being violated, and justice is being trampled underfoot. Today, Muslims will carry the honor of their faith not by remaining silent in the face of the oppressor, but by standing by the oppressed. The end of those who prosper through oppression will be ruinous. Our cause is not a cause for positions. We will continue our struggle with honor until right prevails over wrong.” 

“WE ARE FULLY RESPECTFUL OF ALL DECISIONS”

“As I come to the end of my remarks, I must extend a great thank you to all political parties outside the People's Alliance. Starting with the political parties that have groups in Parliament, 17 political parties, whether they have deputies in Parliament or not, were present both at Saraçhane and everywhere else they needed to be throughout all these processes. The chairmen, through their consultative visits and the statements they made, stood shoulder to shoulder with their members and executives in the rally squares. As our Chairman of the Council just stated, they combined their strengths to fight against the dictator who tries to eliminate democracy and leave politics meaningless and parties without subjects, without fighting among themselves and by keeping their own political symbols shoulder to shoulder. We were together in Maltepe, and we were together in Saraçhane.

From now on, as the Republican People's Party, we are fully respectful of all decisions that all the parties that supported our party's Presidential candidate in this process will make in the future based on their own decisions and visions. As the Republican People's Party, we embrace and accept Ekrem İmamoğlu with all our being, with the awareness that the will that seated him there—with his seat reserved today between my most senior Chairman Altan Öymen and myself—was the 15.5 million solidarity votes and party votes.

Our Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Yavaş, in particular, has embraced both Ekrem Mayor and this party's future claim with extraordinary dedication and a law of brotherhood throughout all processes, with great magnanimity. Both I, Ekrem Mayor, Mansur Mayor, all our Metropolitan Mayors, all our party members, all executives at all levels of our party, and our parliamentary group will continue this great struggle together to first liberate Ekrem İmamoğlu and then bring the ballot box, while at the same time establishing our Presidential Candidacy Office. The mechanism that has followed and criticized what this government has done and expressed how it would solve them with the Republican People's Party's Shadow Cabinet until today will, together with the Presidential Communication Office, make contacts within the framework of the nation's candidate İmamoğlu's vision for candidacy and Turkey's needs, and ensure the continuity of the social support that has emerged.

We will establish mechanisms where every member of our nation can share their feelings, thoughts, expectations, and desires with our Presidential Candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu. Through an inclusive system that brings together the business and labor world, professional chambers, NGOs, the academic community, and social opposition, we will ensure that everyone's voice and labor find a response. We will convey the main themes of our new government program to politics and the nation in every field—from economy to foreign policy, justice to education, agriculture to industry, women to youth, and social policies to national security policies, as well as disaster management and development. Here, together with our candidate, we will effectively communicate this process to Turkey and discuss it with Turkey through our party, our Central Executive Board (MYK), our Shadow Ministers, and the mechanisms to be established with other political parties.

Even though our candidate is a child of the Republican People's Party, our own flesh and blood, we will work together, knowing that we are in interaction with other political parties and views, and that the main goal is democracy, that competing with different views and debating with one another is valuable in a democracy, and that the struggle against this mentality that destroys democracy is essential. I sincerely believe that we will wage this great struggle together—right-wingers and left-wingers, Kurds and Turks, Alevis and Sunnis, social democrats, conservative democrats, nationalist democrats, liberal democrats, and Kurdish democrats. Just as on the night we were elected here, I sincerely believe that we will dream together of building a Turkey that is not about arrogance, dictatorial expressions, or bossing people around, but about a march for justice, a march for democracy, Turkey's resurrection once again, its liberation from the ticks on its back and the junta at its head, its reconstruction, a prosperous Turkey that is a member of the European Union, wealthy, has solved its unemployment problem, and a country where not only its own youth but youth from all over the world dream of a future. In this struggle, the freedom of Zafer Party Chairman Ümit Özdağ, the freedom of former HDP Co-Chairs Mr. Demirtaş and Ms. Yüksekdağ, the freedom of Hatay's TİP-elected MP Can Atalay, and the freedom of all political prisoners, whether Kurdish or Turkish, are among the first and most important goals of our struggle. Therefore, I would like to salute all parties that believe in democracy and justice from this congress, acknowledging the solidarity and joint struggle they have shown, and thank them once again. As the youth and all of us shout together: 'There is no salvation alone, either all together or none of us.' 

“WE ARE STARTING FROM SAMSUN”

“Dozens, hundreds of books have been written explaining how authoritarian populist leaders come to power in the world, what they do to their countries and the world, what they learn from each other, and what the greatest threat of the age is. There are also books that write about how authoritarian leaders leave through coups or popular uprisings in squares, in springs sometimes named after the country. However, an authoritarian, populist leader in that country [can be defeated] through peaceful means, by not fearing the streets, not running away from the squares, not engaging in violence, and using creative ideas—for example, with solidarity ballot boxes, with primary elections held with all members, with night rallies, with million-person rallies despite bans, and then the largest rally in history with 2.2 million people, which they tried to undermine with a 9-day holiday, moving on to Anatolia... Then, every week in a major province... The first of which is in Samsun next Sunday. We are going to Samsun. We are starting from Samsun. With large rallies, with the largest rally in İzmir's history on May 19th, and with a night rally in an Istanbul district every Wednesday evening... We are currently at 7 million signatures in the largest signature campaign in world political history. Starting tomorrow, with a Call Center to be coordinated from our Headquarters across all of Turkey, I invite you all to struggle, to work, and to succeed for the greatest motion of censure, the greatest vote of no confidence in world political history against Erdoğan, by having senior members responsible for 100 people—as we did very successfully in the primary—reach out to 100 members and 100 volunteers, delivering signature forms to all addresses, offering people all over Turkey the chance to sign, and reaching one more than half of the number of voters in Turkey.” 

“THE DAY IS THE DAY TO PROTECT THE WILL”

“Soon, in this hall, we will all once again manifest the will we had 1.5 years ago at that pristine congress, which we all know and where all slanders will be proven empty. By coming here today, by filling this hall, by completing the quorum at 09:30 and taking your seats by 10:00, you have actually expressed what disciplined, determined, and united representatives of an organization that believes in succeeding together you are. Now, we will all together renew the election of the Chairman and then the Party Assembly. From time to time, meaningless, strange, hair-raising comments were made about the Party Assembly, such as 'Sir, they will make a block list. They will steamroll through,' which failed to grasp the sentiment of this hall at all.

In the primary elections held in Turkey, dear Adnan Keskin was very angry when, while the previous record belonged to him and he was offered a quota in Manisa, he said, 'I will go and enter the primary,' and was elected with 86 percent of the vote, came after the primary and became the Group Deputy Chairman. Who are you hitting or steamrolling with a block list when someone who said, 'Don't call me if there is no open list' in the congresses he was invited to manage, is involved? We will, of course, never compromise on the open list. Also, who could believe that we would cut each other down here, where we gathered to stop the trustee? Who could carry such a feeling? We are walking our path together today, preserving the will that emerged from the ballot box at the congress, except for some necessary changes. What are those necessary changes? Because it is being held today, six of our friends; because three of our friends are out of the quota due to their age, because other sacrifices were opened up where those friends needed to be protected, and because one of our friends will take on a very important task in the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality,

While our Youth Branch Chairman was a PM member, he was elected as a natural member of the PM, and he did not take a position in the PM to work with 62 people instead of 61, but let me announce the news of the person who will fill his vacancy here in the presence of my Speaker of the Assembly and my Chairmen. A name you will see on the key list has come in place of Cem Aydın. Cem doesn't know it yet, but Berkay, who is following this program in Silivri, 'Everything will be very beautiful, Berkay,' everything will be very beautiful. In the lists, as you often suggested, 'Let's make sacrifices, let's have a strong list, let's strengthen it with other names.' The day is not that day; the day is the day to protect the will of that day. The day is the day to protect the trust that the delegation here has placed in us. You will see nothing in the lists except for a few necessary changes and a few changes resulting from the natural flow of life. However, that list, even with 'I have no idea, the friends made it, I have no idea, the Provincial Chairs make it...' written on it—no friends, I know everything. That list is also the list entrusted to you, and just like the key list made last time, it will have 'Özgür Özel's key list' written on it. I entrust this key list consisting of 52 people and myself to you, our esteemed delegates.”

“YOU ENTRUSTED THIS TO ME AFTER CAREFUL DELIBERATION”

“You entrusted this list to me last time after careful deliberation. This time, I am entrusting the list to you—not by looking at the front of it, but at the back—so that after you use it, you can fold it up and shove it down the throats of the partisan press. To shove it down their throats. It is not about ‘the CHP is divided, there is infighting in the CHP, this is happening in the CHP, that is happening in the CHP’; the Republican People’s Party is one and whole. It is whole with its former Chairmen, its Parliamentary Group, its Party Assembly, its mayors, and its delegates. We are not the party of a single man like some others; we are the party of a single leader, Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.”

I am making this call to Erdoğan from here. You have declared what you once called the ‘national will’ to be a ‘dirty will’ and have attempted to appoint trustees in its place. When the state stood against the nation in 1980, when the military said ‘elect this person,’ the nation showed Kenan Evren that the nation defeats the state. When those you were once inseparable from—those to whom you gave everything they asked for, those with whom you walked toward the same goal via different paths—attempted a coup against you on July 15, despite all of us, led by Kamer Genç, having warned you repeatedly, we stood behind democracy, opened the closed Parliament while tanks were rolling and planes were bombing, and stood on the same side as the nation against that gang—our historical adversary—the gang you pampered while it attacked you.

On March 31, while you turned TRT and our Anadolu Agency into the propaganda organs of an alliance, while you expected governors to perform like provincial party chairs and district governors like district party chairs, punishing those who did otherwise, and while you manipulated the election by moving the soldiers of our glorious army to cities they had never been to and would never go to, just to have them vote there, the state was against the nation, but we were on the side of the nation, and the nation won again. Now, you are pursuing those who chose service over waste in Istanbul with clean votes, or those who broke records in Ankara, by launching judicial operations against them and attempting a coup against the Republican People’s Party. You are using the state, you are using the prosecutors, you are using the police force, you are using the MIT. But you are forgetting one thing: the nation is still standing before you.

The millions who stood against you in Saraçhane, the 10 millions who poured into the streets on Sunday, and our 86 million citizens are witnessing the beginning of a great struggle today. You, who saw democracy as a train and got off it on March 31. We, who brought this democracy to this country, who established this country’s democracy, and who have no goal other than to move this country forward, will not let you—who have engaged in hostility toward the ballot box with your predecessor-like obsessions and have staged a coup against your successor—will not let you devour either your successor or the will of this nation in the face of this predecessor-style coup.” 

“WE WANT OUR CANDIDATE BY OUR SIDE AND THE BALLOT BOX BEFORE US”

“If you have the courage, you will come. If you want, in the first week of June, with the shortest possible calendar. If you say, ‘I can’t make it in time,’ then halfway through your term, at the latest in November, you will come out and compete with our candidate. With the signatures we have collected, I invite you to face the will of the nation once again, as this is the greatest vote of no confidence in world political history, and as all votes of no confidence inevitably lead to. We are challenging you. We want our candidate by our side and the ballot box before us. The Republican People’s Party is the party of those who never take fear with them, those who left fear behind 100 years ago, those who left fear at Karbala; the Republican People’s Party is the party of those who showed courage at Gallipoli instead of fear; the Republican People’s Party is the party of those who resist, who do not surrender, and who try to reduce poverty by sharing it instead of sharing the rent.”

The Republican People’s Party is the party of friends, the party of loved ones, the party of comrades, the party of all citizens who are loyal to their homeland, their nation, and their flag, regardless of their views. This party has determined the nation’s candidate and is challenging you. If you are not afraid, if you are brave, if you are valiant, if you have the courage, come and face us. Why don’t you trust the nation? If we are thieves, if we are terrorists, if we are bribers, if we are suspicious, why would the nation vote for us? If you think you can convince the nation, if you think you can defeat us, we are not afraid of the nation.”

We are stepping before our nation. With our candidate, our staff, and our courage, of which we are proud, we are ready to save Turkey from you. Erdoğan, the man of the halls. Before I deliver the real congress speech, where I will embrace hundreds of thousands in a moment, I am addressing you, the man of the halls, from this hall where we were forcibly confined: Do not be afraid; if you have the courage, face us. We will hold both you and your junta to account. We will save Turkey once again. To my dear delegates, whom I have visited in their districts, whom I love and respect, regardless of their past attitudes, stances, or words, and whom I have embraced during these nearly 250 provincial and district visits: I am glad you rushed here, I am glad you came here, and I am glad you stood by your party.

I entrust myself and our list to you. The image of unity and solidarity that will emerge here will be the worry of pro-government channels tomorrow evening. It is time to remind those who try to hide the injustices and unfairness done to Mayor Ekrem by keeping us on the agenda, of this country's true agenda: the scarcity, poverty, unemployment, and the solution to them, which is the ballot box and our candidate. I love you all, and I will end my words by saying one thing to you all. In this hall, there are those who have hurt each other and those who have been hurt in the past. There are those who have been saddened and those who have caused sadness. Every fight has someone who is right and someone who is wrong.

As the Chairman of the party, I apologize on behalf of all those who were wrong to all those who were right in this hall. Make peace with each other, friends, embrace one another. Stand up and embrace. It is this unity of yours that will carry this party into the future. I love you all. This party is one, it is whole, and it is entrusted to you. I am glad you exist. Long live the Republic, long live its founder, the Republican People's Party, and long live the party of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. In the end, we will succeed, you will succeed. I greet you all with respect. Thank you, may you exist.

News Source: 12punto