Did the CHP's 'boycott' call find its mark? Özgür Özel explains

Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Özgür Özel made statements today (March 29) before the rally he will hold in Maltepe. CHP leader Özel, who held a rally in Saraçhane for 7 days, gave the following response to DW Turkish's question, "Are you tired?":

“There is physical fatigue. But because of our belief in the cause, I feel extremely vigorous and extremely motivated. It is impossible to fall into such despair when my friends, my mayors, and my presidential candidate are in prison. We are just getting started. We will make a big start tomorrow. In Maltepe and from now on, we will perhaps conduct one of the longest and most difficult campaigns in world political history.”

When asked about AKP Chairman and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's reference to a grave and MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli's statement that he had "gone off the rails," Özel was asked, "Do you feel at risk? Are you worried?" Özel stated the following:

Under normal circumstances, when a risk assessment is made, we are probably in the highest risk group by universal standards. But we are used to living like this in Turkey. Erdoğan is someone who constantly does politics by demonizing his opponents, polarizing society over this, and making them targets. In the past, he and Mr. Bahçeli, with whom he now has very good relations, were so tense that they would trade very heavy insults, throw nooses at each other in rally squares, or say very harsh words and insults to each other.

But if we are to surrender to this hardening of politics, if we are to take a step back, they will achieve their goal. Despite all their threats, we must stand before society with great courage. So it is not a situation we are not used to, but of course, graves and such... These are not the language of politics, meaning these are not right things. We all have families, we have elderly mothers, fathers, siblings, and young children. If a politician has reached the point of saying 'they will dig your grave too' in front of the whole society when he cannot defeat his opponent, I have no answer to this anymore. But for my own part, I am not afraid. I am sad for those who love us and are saddened.

Stating that they "will not let go" of the reports of torture of young people who were detained during the protests in Saraçhane, Özel called for the release of IMM Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and his colleagues to be tried without detention. Özel said the following:

"İMAMOĞLU WILL CHASE ERDOĞAN UNTIL THE BALLOT BOX"

I am warning you once again from here. Also, Mahir Polat (IMM Deputy Secretary General, who was arrested as part of the City Consensus investigation) must be tried without detention as soon as possible. All our friends must be tried without detention. This detention measure is nothing more than Mussolini's pre-execution method. Otherwise, if you let Ekrem İmamoğlu go, would he run away? If Ekrem İmamoğlu were to run away, Tayyip Erdoğan would be the most pleased by this. Because his opponent would have run away. Ekrem İmamoğlu will not run away; he will chase Tayyip Erdoğan until the ballot box.

Özel gave the following response to the question, "Did the boycott call work?":

“Yes. We see from the density maps on Google Maps that the density has decreased significantly in the places we are boycotting, and we are following it. Our boycott call is not an ideological call. Although the youth in the square specifically wanted us to protest a chain close to the government that eliminates small businesses in their universities and places itself there, and again a food company that has provided a lot of finance to the government in the past, but these two were raised at the request of the youth, the name of this Ülker and Espressolab were mentioned, but apart from those, we are not doing anything to the newspapers that carry us on their screens, to their televisions.

But we are targeting the economic institutions of those who do not see our resistance. This is yielding serious results, and it will continue to do so. We will continue as well. Our boykotvar.net system had been blocked, now it is open to access, it can be followed from there. We will also see at tomorrow's rally. If there are channels that do not broadcast live, those who do not see us, who do not see that crowd, what companies do those who do not see have, for example, which restaurants do they have, which vehicles do they sell? We will make cards for them and show them to our citizens.”