CHP leader Özgür Özel: 'The candidate for an early election is determined early'

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel took the podium at his party's group meeting. Before beginning his speech, Özel invited independent deputies Cemal Enginyurt and Salih Uzun, who had resigned from the Democrat Party some time ago, to the stage. Özel pinned their party badges on them. The two figures, whose move to the CHP had been discussed for some time, officially joined the party. 

Taking the podium, Salih Uzun began his remarks by saying, "I come from the center-right" and continued as follows: 

"God knows I tried very hard. I did not come here by wiping away my past or changing completely; I came here because the only thing to be done today is to unite." 

Cemal Enginyurt then took the floor. Referring to the lieutenants dismissed from the TSK for chanting the slogan "We are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal," Enginyurt said; "We did not come to be yours, and we will not be, Erdoğan. We came to be the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal" he said.

Enginyurt continued his remarks as follows: 

"I am speaking on behalf of those in Silivri. Shame on us if we do not make you experience the dungeons where we were held innocent. Even if the 'jelly bean' madmen do not understand this, we were elected with the legitimate votes of the CHP. We did not come to be among those on a leash who stand when the CHP says stand, sit when it says sit, come when it says come, and go when it says go; we came for a strong will."

Following this, CHP leader Özgür Özel took the podium to convey his party's agenda. Özel began his speech with the chain of negligence in the fire disaster in Kartalkaya that caused the loss of 79 lives. 

'THIS SPEAR NO LONGER FITS IN THE SACK'

Highlights from Özel's speech are as follows: 

"They called the report 'pirated'—the one the Minister of Justice had initially commissioned with an official letter, but then refused to accept, saying, 'We won't take it unless you add the Bolu Municipality to this report,' and 'We won't take it unless you remove the Ministry of Tourism from this report.' The Minister of Interior had pledged that all those responsible would be identified within 10 days of the incident. Today, exactly 14 days have passed since that promise. The responsible parties are nowhere to be found. The responsibilities are nowhere to be found."

We disclosed the official appointment letter. The 7-person expert committee of that day upheld both their professional integrity and personal honor, and they did not add anyone they did not deem guilty to that report. Since that day, new experts have arrived and worked for a few days, but there is neither the old report nor a separate report; there is no report at all. However, when those in custody appear before a judge, their responsibilities will be determined according to that report, and a decision will be made on whether to request their transfer from detention to arrest. The judge's decision was supposed to be based on the findings of the expert witness.

The two parts of the report consist of AKP members blaming each other and those appointed by them. Those who try to pin responsibility on the CHP through social media campaigns—responsibility that exists neither in the report nor anywhere else—have no place in the hearts of the nation; they have seen that everyone is reading this issue correctly.

They have been unable to move for 14 days. For 14 days, arrests have been made without an expert report, and for 14 days, the Bolu Chief Public Prosecutor, under pressure from Ankara, has been struggling with the question: "How can I clear the AK Party and implicate the Republican People's Party here?"

The Minister of Interior remains silent despite the promise he made. This is a shame, unfortunately. This spear can no longer fit into this sack. This shame can no longer be hidden, but they will wait; they are waiting."

'DISMISS THIS MINISTER IMMEDIATELY!'

Continuing his speech, Özel addressed President Erdoğan and said the following: 

"I am addressing Erdoğan. The Ankara Provincial Congress was a shameful affair. You made a mistake. Now, waiting for the grand congress is an even bigger mistake. Dismiss this minister immediately. Because no matter when you dismiss him, you cannot change this fact: You are the pen that appointed this minister, as well as all the other ministers who have brought disasters upon this country throughout your tenure. The pen is yours, the ink is yours, and you are responsible. You cannot change this."

Emphasizing that those responsible for the fire are in Ankara, Özel said, "No prosecutor can take these people and interrogate them. For example, 99.9 percent of this nation is convinced that there are many questions to be asked of the Minister of Culture and Tourism, many answers to be sought, and a real account to be settled." he said.

Özel stated the following: 

"But to do this, a parliamentary inquiry commission must be established in the Assembly. For ministers, a request to establish an inquiry commission in the Assembly is a criminal complaint. The submission of that petition to the Assembly is the prosecutor's office stage. The voting of the report prepared by the commission in the Assembly is the referral to the court. Its acceptance is the trial by the Constitutional Court in its capacity as the Supreme Court."

That is why this Assembly has a duty, but unfortunately, while the April 16, 2017 referendum created a one-man regime, it also provided significant safeguards for those at the top in Ankara, and sometimes their collaborators, against being questioned for crimes committed on the ground." 

Reminding that it is the 2nd anniversary of the February 6 earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaraş, Özel stated that the government has issued 8 zoning amnesties in 21 years.

Özel said the following:

"We have not forgotten those who caused the destruction of our 11 cities and the loss of over 53,000 of our citizens; those who collected over 3 trillion dollars in taxes over 21 years and did not spend a single penny on resilient cities, nor a single penny to prevent that earthquake, but instead collected 26 billion liras from zoning amnesties; those who could not prevent this disaster; those who are responsible for their actions both before and for their incompetence from the moment the earthquake struck; those who kept the Turkish army, ready to act, in their barracks out of fear for 3 days; those who sold tents while the nation was in misery, standing in water up to their ankles, waiting for at least a tent in the snow, rain, and mud; and those who started talking about elections on the 3rd day of the earthquake, saying, 'Everyone will be in their homes within 1 year.'"

Continuing his remarks by evaluating the announced January inflation figures and the state of the economy, Özel recalled the 2025 minimum wage and said, "They have condemned our workers to a year of misery" he said. 

'MINIMUM WAGE FELL BELOW THE HUNGER THRESHOLD BEFORE IT EVEN ENTERED POCKETS'

Özel said the following: 

"This means stealing 4 percent from the money that will enter the pocket of every retiree and every civil servant. The Minister of Finance, whose inflation rate was 38 percent when he took office a year and a half ago, said yesterday that he considers the 42 percent inflation rate a success. Turkey is the sixth worst country in the world in terms of inflation. The inflation rates of all other countries in the world are lower than ours. Monthly inflation in Turkey is higher than the annual inflation of 140 countries in the world. The minimum wage, which Erdoğan deemed reasonable by saying 'it sits well with us,' has fallen below the hunger threshold in the very first month, that is, before it even entered the worker's pocket, just as we said it would."

And they come out and call these figures a 'success.' We warned them before 2024 ended; we warned them from this podium. 'Make the minimum wage 30,000 liras. Otherwise, the minimum wage will fall below the hunger threshold before it enters the employee's pocket.' We said this. This wage, which Erdoğan deemed reasonable by saying 'It sits well with us,' and even saying 'Whether they like it or not, the minimum wage is 22,000 TL, they will accept it,' has fallen below the hunger threshold in the very first month, that is, before it even entered the worker's pocket, just as we said it would." The hunger threshold has been announced as 22,131 liras, and the minimum wage of 22,104 liras has fallen below this level before even entering the pockets of workers. According to January inflation, 1,100 liras have vanished from the minimum wage.

The purchasing power of the minimum wage has eroded to 20,992 liras compared to the day it was announced. It has lost 1,100 liras. While we were trying to say, "You cannot make a living with this minimum wage, the misery will not end," and defending the rights of the workers, those who did not listen to us and ignored our calls for a "30,000 lira minimum wage, target 30, we won't accept anything less," have condemned our laborers to a year of misery. Now, they intend not to increase the minimum wage for a year, supposedly because it is a burden on inflation—even though we all know it is not. The minimum wage is currently losing 1,000 liras per month. This means that in four months, its purchasing power will fall below the value it had on the day it was granted, dropping below 17,000 TL. They are trying to force people into misery with a minimum wage that will continue to decrease for seven months, falling even below last year's levels."

CHP MEMBERS WILL PAY THE LIEUTENANTS' SEVERANCE

"We are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal" Speaking about the lieutenants who were dismissed from the TSK for saying this, Özgür Özel held an open vote in the CHP group and decided that the lieutenants' severance pay would be covered by CHP members. 

Özel stated the following: 

"The Turkish Armed Forces serve with soldiers, non-commissioned officers, specialist sergeants, and officers who are ready to give their lives for every inch of this land, for the peace of each of us, and for the waving of our glorious crescent-and-star flag, just as Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk entrusted this beautiful nation, this beautiful state, and these lands to them. The honorable officers of this army dream of two things from the first day they join: one is the day they will receive their rank, and the other is the day they will be sent off from this army with glory and honor after having completed their duty at the highest rank they reach in their professional lives."

Sometimes they retire as colonels, sometimes as captains, sometimes as admirals or generals, and sometimes, all too early, they return in a coffin draped in the crescent-and-star red flag. They do not see the two as different from one another. On the day they had dreamed of, these lieutenants wanted to draw their swords to express their loyalty to their beloved Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the army, the flag, the nation, and the state. They asked for permission for that sword-crossing ceremony, a tradition that has existed for years and perhaps the very thing that drew them to the military academy in the first place. They were told, 'No. It cannot be done at the ceremony.' They then said, 'Once the ceremony is over, once the President has left, once the protocol has departed, we will hold this ceremony together.' They went, took their oath, and were subsequently referred to the disciplinary board for 'disobeying orders.'

In fact, this year was a year of honor for the army. Why? For the first time since its founding, the top graduates of all three military academies—Army, Air Force, and Navy—were female lieutenants. This was a success for Turkish women; it was a story of the Republic. However, certain Islamist factions and various sects and communities that could not stomach this attacked the lieutenants, especially Lieutenant Ebru, on social media for eight days. Eight days later, after remaining silent for eight days, Erdoğan confronted Lieutenant Ebru—the same lieutenant whose greeting he had smiled at, whose well-being he had asked after, whose award he had presented, and whose hand he had shaken—by asking, 'Who are you drawing your sword against?' Since that day, we have objected, the nation has stood by them, and Erdoğan has blamed them. Unfortunately, since that day, investigations were launched into the lieutenants, and sadly, five of our lieutenants and three of their commanders were dismissed from the army the other day. First of all, while no investigation has been opened against those who have been insulting, using sexist slurs, threatening, and openly targeting the lieutenants on social media for months, the lieutenants were punished and dismissed simply for saying, 'We are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal.' I have said this, and I will continue to say it: While those who kept an investigation into a robed admiral waiting for months and granted him his retirement rights ruined the youth dreams of our lieutenants, they did not stop there. They burned the careers of the commanders who were at retirement age without even granting them their retirement, and they darkened the lives of the lieutenants. These 5 lieutenants and 3 commanders are the honor and pride of us all.

'THE CANDIDATE FOR AN EARLY ELECTION IS DETERMINED EARLY' 

Speaking on the early election and candidacy process, Özgür Özel, "We see that some of those who, until just yesterday, were saying that the CHP is being crushed between two candidacy debates, that the agenda is always this, and that the candidate must be clarified, have now started to ask why the CHP is determining its candidate early." he stated. 

"The candidate for an early election is determined early." Özel said, announcing that the Party Assembly will hold a critical meeting on February 10. Özel, "The democratic stance of the CHP will serve as an example for all political parties" he said. 

News Source: 12punto