Özgür Özel explains what will be done if İmamoğlu's candidacy is blocked! Notable remarks on Mansur Yavaş...

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel made comprehensive assessments regarding the agenda on the "Sabah Pusulası" program broadcast on TELE1. In his speech, Özel described the situation in the judiciary, operations targeting his party, and the dimensions of the debates within the CHP.

“A PERIOD WORSE THAN ERGENEKON”

Özel compared the current state of the judiciary to the Ergenekon process and summarized why today's picture is more concerning.

“The state of the judiciary is worse than in the days of Ergenekon. Even back then, the judiciary was less unhinged than it is now. It is worse than Ergenekon. At that time, there were FETÖ-affiliated judges in critical positions, but there were also judges who had arrived there based on merit. There was lawlessness, but the judiciary had not been captured to this extent. They made people they were sure were AK Party supporters into judges and prosecutors. The most ardent AK Party supporters took these seats.”

YSK STATEMENT AND JUDICIAL INTERFERENCE IN POLITICS

Recalling the statements of the Supreme Election Council (YSK) chairman, Özel highlighted concerns regarding election security.

“Yesterday, the YSK Chairman finally reminded everyone of the constitutional article. I said, 'Elections are the business of the election boards and the YSK, what is it to you, brother?' They are conducting an operation against a political party through a civil court of first instance. The YSK is fed up with these things. Elections in Turkey cannot proceed if it continues like this. Can civil courts of first instance be an appellate authority for the YSK? In that case, every political view would appoint its own judge, and they would have each other's elections annulled. There would be no political order left in Turkey. You are creating terror. This is judicial terror.”

“YOU CANNOT SINK THE CHP SHIP” REACTION

Criticizing judicial decisions with harsh words, Özel reacted to the 45th Civil Court of First Instance and noted the following:

“We are at the final point of shamelessness. Today, the judge of the 45th Civil Court is making a kamikaze dive. Think of the CHP as a ship. He does not recognize his own judgeship. Knowing that he cannot perform this profession, he is blowing himself up with an impossible decision, and he is trying to blow up the ship as well. Brother, do you have the power? The first captain of that ship was Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. If a lawyer went to court today and found someone to say, 'I was going to vote in the referendum. Someone offered me money, I changed my vote,' and the civil court of first instance said, 'The will has been corrupted, I am canceling it,' and then declared Erdoğan's presidency void, committed a crime, and appointed someone who was removed from the AKP as president... As legal as that situation would be, what is happening at the Istanbul Provincial Headquarters is just as legal.”

Explaining the lawlessness with examples, Özel stated, "As legal as that situation would be, what is happening at the Istanbul Provincial Headquarters is just as legal."

GÜRSEL TEKİN AND BERHAN ŞİMŞEK OUTBURST

In the program, when asked, "Are Berhan Şimşek and Gürsel Tekin acting with Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu?" Özel gave the following response:

“I do not want to mention these events in the same sentence as Mr. Kemal. Berhan Şimşek is a figure that the party has truly been patient with for many years... He is throwing the congress into chaos with signatures he does not have. The only goal of these men is the image that 'there is a fight in the CHP'... There is a lot of fault on my part in that patience. Let's not do it, let's not act, let's not throw...”

Özel also expressed his view on Gürsel Tekin in the context of respect and legal processes within the party as follows:

“On the other hand, Mr. Gürsel had resigned himself. Later, he did not put his resignation into effect. He is someone we respect. What was the easy way on the day a trustee was appointed to the party? 'Mr. Gürsel is our elder, let him come.' If they appointed my father, my brother, or my daughter to Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's party, I would be a coward if I didn't kick them out of the party. Can you enter Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's trust in Istanbul with 5,000 police officers? I have never disrespected an elder in this party to this day. I have not had a fault or a mistake. But entering the CHP with gas using the AK Party judiciary... Nothing bothers me, but they are spraying gas on a 72-year-old woman. Why? Because they were going to spray gas on the trustee Özgür Çelik. Our friends contacted them from in front of the door and said, 'I will enter in 10 minutes.' Tomorrow, if Gürsel Tekin has a human need, I will be the first to reach out and hold his hand. But I will not turn and look at his face while he is involved in these things. I do not accept him being a part of the AK Party's operation. When Gürsel Tekin entered the Istanbul Provincial Headquarters with the police, we changed the status of the building. That place is now my office. Our friends did not let the police or the trustee into the management floor of that place. They entered the room as they saw fit. They come for a few hours a day. Friends said, 'Let's throw them out,' I said, 'Do not make anyone experience the image we were made to experience.' But after we receive the certificate of election on Monday, after I re-appoint that place as the provincial headquarters, we will not let people who have been expelled from our party enter there without a reasonable justification.”

“İMAMOĞLU’S CRIME IS DEFEATING ERDOĞAN”

Özel noted the following regarding the operations against Ekrem İmamoğlu:

Ekrem İmamoğlu's crime is the crime of defeating Erdoğan. This is not written in the Turkish Penal Code, but it is the most serious crime. If Ekrem İmamoğlu came today and said to Akın Gürlek, 'I will give a statement,' and said, 'I confess, 31 years ago I killed someone at Istanbul University, I buried him under that tree,' and they found the body, they could not detain him. There is a statute of limitations. He is not responsible for the murder he committed 30 years ago right now, but they canceled the diploma he received 31 years ago. A crime heavier than murder is the crime of running with that diploma and defeating Erdoğan.

REMARKS ON ÖZLEM ÇERÇİOĞLU

Özel also touched upon the pressures on municipalities through the Aydın Metropolitan Municipality and certain tenders:

"Aziz İhsan Aktaş has received 388 tenders. 80 of these were from the CHP, and over 300 were from the AK Party. They are attacking CHP municipalities; they are either throwing them in jail or making them join the AK Party. The hardest-working municipality is the Aydın Metropolitan Municipality. They told Özlem Çerçioğlu, 'Either you join the party, or you join the AK Party.' That 'topuklu efe' (heeled hero) broke her heels, greased her heels, and joined the AK Party."

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDACY DEBATES

Özel spoke as follows regarding the candidate determination process:

“If Ekrem İmamoğlu were my candidate, I might think, I might change it. I have made a decision. I would say, 'Now, someone else would be more appropriate in his place.' But I cannot do that because he is not my candidate. If he were the party's candidate, I would gather the relevant boards. Ekrem İmamoğlu is the nation's candidate. 15 and a half million people voted for Ekrem İmamoğlu, they made him the nation's candidate. I cannot change someone whom 15 and a half million people made a candidate; even he cannot give up... But if the elections approach and a legal obstacle arises to his candidacy, Ekrem Bey, I, the party, and Turkey will have a new candidate, we will all stand behind them, and we will win this election again.”

Özel summarized his role in managing the process with these words:

“I am the chairman of the party. My position is to manage the process of determining the most appropriate candidate... If Ekrem Bey's candidacy technically cannot happen, I will not be the one to make the decision. The nation makes the decision. There is nothing like asking the nation.”

“THE TABLE OF SIX WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN”

“Ekrem Bey, I, the party, and Turkey will have a new candidate. We will stand behind them. We will win this election again. I am the chairman of the party. My position is to manage the process of determining the most appropriate candidate... My claim is, I don't know who will take the penalty kick. But I know that I will have the most appropriate person take it. We will have someone take it who won't miss.

If we reach a day when Ekrem Bey's candidacy is technically and legally impossible, I will still not be the one to determine the candidate. We will look at it by discussing it with all the party's boards and putting all the data in front of us. But the final decision is made by the nation. Nominating a candidate is a risky business. I am not saying this to blame anyone in the past. We nominated someone who was not the chairman, we nominated our chairman... They all have a burden. But in the end, there is nothing like asking the nation. We can no longer turn back from there. There is nothing written about this in the charter, regulations, or law. But this is a democratic gain. If we are going to nominate a candidate one day, we must proceed by asking not just the members, but the nation.”

“DEMOCRACY ALLIANCE” STATEMENT

Speaking about the allegations of an alliance with the MHP, Özel clarified the definition of an alliance.

“There is a cooperation and alliance between the AK Party and the MHP. We do not have a political alliance initiative with the MHP, but we can cooperate with everyone on the point of democratizing Turkey as a whole, which also includes solving the Kurdish issue through peaceful means, as they call it a 'Turkey without terror' and we call it a 'Turkey without terror and democratic'... What we are talking about is not a political alliance, but a democracy alliance. We are not after forming a political alliance with the MHP or anything like that. We are not parties of the same politics anyway.”

MANSUR YAVAŞ IS ALSO A TARGET

Speaking to Evrensel, Özel stated that Mansur Yavaş is also among the targets of the operations:

“The whole purpose of this operation is to harm Mansur Yavaş and the CHP... When you look at it in terms of Mansur Yavaş's identity, he is seen as the strongest candidate if Ekrem İmamoğlu is not or cannot be the presidential candidate; he surpasses Erdoğan in the polls. He is the name who can defeat him. Now, since Ekrem İmamoğlu has been imprisoned because he committed the crime of defeating Erdoğan three times in a row and has the intention to do it again; it is clear that Mansur Yavaş is also being targeted with the same goal.”