Özgür Özel reminds Erdoğan of 'Pastor Brunson and blackmail': He can't say a word

In his speech at the opening ceremony of the Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi Park and Collective Opening in the Cumhuriyet neighborhood of Didim Municipality, Özel reminded that Ezgi was murdered by Israeli soldiers in Palestine.

Stating that he gave instructions at the time to ensure Ayşenur was not forgotten and that her name would be kept alive, Özel said the following:

"Ayşenur was a citizen of both the USA and Turkey. She studied psychology at the University of Washington, but she was protesting and rebelling against the unequal order and imperialist order in the world from America. Like all of us, Ayşenur opposed Israel's oppression in Palestine, but unlike all of us, she got up and went to Palestine. She protested the oppression there and lost her life to a cowardly bullet. On September 19, we bid farewell to Ayşenur here with tens of thousands of people in tears. Here, in this park, we will open a park in her name with flowers bearing the colors of the Palestinian flag and a symbol of peace."

"HE CANNOT SAY ANYTHING TO TRUMP"

Criticizing President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over US President Donald Trump's remarks on Gaza, Özel said:

"Today, Trump says 'Gaza is beautiful,' he says 'Let me clear it out,' he says 'We will build beautiful hotels there, we will build casinos, we will make Gaza a resort city.' Some are silent. He used to have these staged quarrels with Netanyahu from time to time, now he doesn't even do that. He was supposedly saying 'One minute,' but what minutes, what hours, what days, what months have passed. He doesn't open his mouth to say anything to Trump.

Trump is officially advocating for displacement on top of the genocide, on top of the genocide in Gaza, for those people to go to the five surrounding Muslim countries. Not only does he not object to this, but he tells his pro-government columnists, 'It could be a Hijra.' It is as if he is giving a path to those who can stoop so low as to show the Prophet Muhammad's Hijra as an example to Palestinians, exploit religious sentiments, and empty Palestine and Gaza to open a construction site for Trump. He is ensuring that he clears the way for himself.

"US PRESIDENTS SOMETIMES PLAY THE FOOL"

Let us say it clearly here; American presidents sometimes play the fool, but their calculations are ones that even the devil wouldn't think of. Let no one think that Trump is looking at that thin coastline there, at the five or ten hotels he will build there, or at the gambling revenue he will generate there. In front of that long coastline, there are hydrocarbon deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean that will suffice for Europe, for all of Europe, for 100 years.

American imperialism, the American mindset, America's plan is being hidden by Trump's act of playing the fool. Anyone who is silent against Trump today is not silent against a fool, but is silent against the displacement of Palestine, the expulsion of people from their own homeland after the genocide, and the handing over of the hydrocarbons in the Eastern Mediterranean to Israel and America. Everyone will see this."

"HE REMINDS HIM OF THE PASTOR"

Our daughter Rümeysa spent months in prison just for protesting America. Trump reminds Erdoğan—and unfortunately Turkey—of the pastor in every speech, after Erdoğan once said to Trump, 'As long as this soul remains in this body, you cannot take the pastor, you cannot take Pastor Brunson. Give the pastor, take the pastor,' and said he would not give the pastor without getting Fethullah Gülen from America, only to send Pastor Brunson away in a hurry with a single phone call from Trump and a scolding on the phone.

He says, 'I like Erdoğan, we are on good terms. I asked in the past and he gave me my pastor immediately.' Yet Erdoğan was saying, 'I will not give him as long as this soul remains in this body,' but Trump says, 'I asked, and he gave him immediately.' He reminds Erdoğan—and unfortunately us—of the threat he made to him in those days, the reminder about his assets, the blackmail he made at the time saying, 'If you don't give the pastor, I will disclose your assets,' and how Erdoğan surrendered to him all of a sudden."

"IT EXPOSES THE HYPOCRISY OF THE AK PARTY ADMINISTRATION"

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel concluded his remarks in summary as follows:

"When it was asked, 'Who should be here, who should be present?', while we were distancing ourselves from that party, the Justice and Development Party, and its Chairman with the Chairman's rhetoric, and while Justice and Development Party members had forgotten Palestine, we invited our Istanbul Provincial Chairman Özgür Çelik here, who showed the hypocrisy of the AK Party administration to all of Turkey—how it was blocked by the Istanbul Police, the Governor's Office, but primarily by Erdoğan's instructions—when they organized a Palestine march saying 'From the river to the sea' and were blocked, with police standing against them. Özgür Çelik exposes this hypocrisy at every opportunity."

News Source: AA