Özgür Özel's first statement on the Öcalan slogan in the Turkish Parliament! Will the CHP go to İmralı?

Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Özgür Özel made statements to journalists at Istanbul Airport before his trip to Spain and Belgium.

DRUG OPERATION TARGETING CELEBRITIES

Özel emphasized that the drug operation targeting celebrities yesterday morning was an assassination of reputation and stated, "Supposedly there is a dealer. There is no dealer, there is a bag. Inside that bag are artists with opposition identities."

Özel continued his remarks as follows:

“It is a shameful operation. If they had made an arrest, if they had said ‘I made an arrest,’ the reason for it would be asked. And what they did would be known. The work they did is not an arrest, and what they did has no equivalent in a state of law. First of all, what they did is a direct attack on family life, an attack on private life, an attack on housing security. And an assassination of reputation. It is a direct assassination of reputation.

What is the purpose? The purpose is this: Supposedly they have a witness, a dealer. He gives a statement. How is it that from that dealer's bag come people who do not have rhetoric that would please the government in Turkey, who would praise the government, who criticize from time to time, but whose criticisms are within democratic limits, not offending anyone, and are even very careful criticisms? But what have they done?

For example, they have been in a critical stance against the March 19 coup. They say, ‘There is a dealer.’ There is no dealer. There is a bag. Inside the bag are artists with opposition identities. They take them out, they take them from their homes at the crack of dawn with the gendarmerie. They take them for blood tests, urine tests, hair samples to check for drugs. If it turned out that 18 out of these 19 people had something—which they don't—but if it turned out that one didn't, where will you account for this injustice you did to that one person? Where will you account for it? You are supposedly lawyers. The law says, ‘Let 99 criminals walk among us rather than one innocent person go to jail.’ It is chilling when you first hear it. You say, ‘How can that be?’ They teach this when teaching judges and prosecutors the price of accusing an innocent person for nothing. They study this and then come and apply it.

On September 4, Meriç Alkan Keskin's daughter Güneş was born. And the mother has been breastfeeding baby Güneş for 32 days. Yesterday they took Ms. Meriç, they took her with the gendarmerie. Her husband came with a breast pump in his hand, and while some were trying to discredit Güneş's mother with blood samples and hair samples, he took milk from there and brought it to Güneş. Damn those who make this country experience such a shameful, such a disgraceful thing. Damn them.”

WILL THE CHP GO TO İMRALI?

The new reconciliation process, called a Turkey Without Terror, was also on Özel's agenda. When asked by a journalist, "If the commission decides to go to İmralı, will the CHP go?" he replied, "The AKP should first determine its own stance," and continued as follows:

“Those who denied it while I was saying it are meeting with Abdullah Öcalan through state officials, and then through a negotiation delegation. When we talked about this process being carried out by the AK Party and the MHP, they were denying it. You all remember what they said to me. I had said, ‘The state has been meeting for a year,’ and look at what they said. Now the matter has turned and circled back. This time, they cannot take responsibility and say, ‘Sir, should we do it this way or that way?’ If the Parliamentary commission is going to put such a thing on its agenda, let them put it on, let us see. Let the Speaker of the Parliament put it on, let the MHP and the AK Party put it forward. Let them determine their stances. Then let them come and ask me. I have not officially seen, heard, or known that such a thing has been put on the agenda by our commission members to be conveyed to my party's authorized bodies at this moment. Let the AK Party first determine its own stance. Let them determine the number of the delegation, let the Speaker of the Parliament invite whoever he wants from whichever party. Let them say what the AK Party says about whether such a delegation should be established or not, and whom they have assigned. Then let them come and ask us about our stance on this issue. Let them not demonize and marginalize the Republican People's Party in everything, and then prioritize it when it suits them. My place is known, my home is known, my stance is known. The commission I am in is known, the place I sit is known. Let us see their own positions first. Let them answer these. After that, we will continue to answer these issues.”

ÖCALAN SLOGANS CHANTED IN PARLIAMENT

Regarding the slogans chanted in favor of the leader of the terrorist organization PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, during the DEM Party's group meeting in the Turkish Grand National Assembly, Özel noted the following:

“It is not right to take the Öcalan slogans chanted under the roof of the Turkish Grand National Assembly and evolve them into another issue just because some people from outside chanted some slogans. However, those areas must be managed carefully. It is not right for any of us to tolerate or see as normal the chanting of these slogans in the Turkish Grand National Assembly. Since a process is being carried out, it is expected that the right things will be done step by step, we have all put our hands under the stone regarding this, we are not engaging in demagoguery, we are not creating hostility, and we are trying to contribute to the weaving of a peace process from a correct place, for this to happen through democratization, and for this to solve the Kurdish issue. There is a need for a process management and care that will contribute to that. This care has been sacrificed. It has not been acted upon with care.”

News Source: 12punto