A promise from Özgür Özel to farmer Abdullah Ceylan! 'Not with radishes or turnips...'

Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Özgür Özel spoke at his party's weekly parliamentary group meeting in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM).

Our Chairman Özgür Özel is speaking at our party's TBMM group meeting. https://t.co/N2MKsIA9Jz

— CHP ???? (@herkesicinCHP) April 22, 2025

Highlights from Özel's speech:

"I HEARTILY THANK THOSE WHO SAY 'YOZGAT IS HERE'"

We were in Yozgat last Saturday. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I heartily thank our farmers, who are the masters of the nation, our villagers, our retirees struggling to make ends meet, our women who are ignored and belittled, and our youth who hold onto hope even when their dreams are stolen, for filling the Yozgat Square, for giving confidence to friends and anxiety to those who are not, and for saying, "We are here! The square is not empty. This is the square! Yozgat is here!"

RESPONSE TO 'TRACTOR COUNT'

AK Party writers cannot decide. They are fighting among themselves over the number of tractors. One said 500, the other counted 354. Another did the math. There were supposed to be 35,000 tractors in Yozgat. One came from the face of it. It means 99 of them were not with us. I kiss the foreheads of the people of Yozgat and the Yozgat farmers who have become the focus of Turkey's agenda, made their voices heard by the whole world, and have been setting the agenda for pro-government channels for days. I am glad they exist. Someone's chemistry has been disrupted.

Those who call it 'Anatolian wisdom' when they receive votes did not leave a single insult unsaid when Yozgat did not remain silent against injustice. This is their view of Anatolia, their view of the Anatolian people, and what they understand by Anatolian wisdom. Those who declare people acceptable when they are on their side, and rejected when they are not, are in power in Turkey today. Therefore, we want to say this to everyone who came to that beautiful gathering, contributed, or was even in Yozgat but whose heart was in the square but could not go out that day, or who was not in Yozgat but found themselves in that square in Yozgat: There is a very clear situation. The lines in Turkey have now become clear. We are not in favor of polarization, factionalism, or division. We are in favor of brotherhood, embracing each other, and struggling together against difficulties. Now, on one side, there are millions who are weary of scarcity, poverty, unemployment, and injustice. On the other side, there is a handful of ambitious people who say, "Let this order continue, let our power continue, no matter what happens."

"WE WILL WIN, THE ONE-MAN RULE WILL LOSE"

Leaving aside the right and left of this business and party differences, in the struggle between those who are in favor of democracy and those who are in favor of autocracy, we are together—social democrats, nationalist democrats, conservative democrats, liberal democrats, socialist democrats, Kurdish democrats, and as in Yozgat, Alevis, Sunnis, all sects, and all views—shoulder to shoulder, just as we did 105 years ago in this Assembly, the 1st Assembly, which prioritized the will of the people, saying that whatever the people say goes, and standing against those who take the vote from the people, crown it, and then turn their backs on them, turn up their noses, try to take the ballot box from in front of them, interfere with the president they will choose, and take the presidential candidate and put them in prison. We are in favor of the democracy and republic established by the legacy of the Gazi. We are in favor of the right to vote and be elected, and competition in elections. We are one and together against those who run from competition, try to become dictators, and hide the ballot box, and because we are a nation, we will win again, just as we did 105 years ago, because we are all together, arm in arm, shoulder to shoulder. The one-man rulers will lose.

"THEY DECIDED ON A COUP ON OCTOBER 9"

They decided to stage a coup on October 9. They sent the judicial arm of the coup to Istanbul, supposedly. To a courthouse, so that they could design and arrange everything there through the judiciary. From that day to this, while they have been trying to set a trap for the next president, our presidential candidate, and to discredit him, his friends, and our friends, we have been objecting to this day by day. I had stated from this podium 3 weeks before the operation that a coup mechanism was in operation, that they were advancing step by step, and that this was a coup attempt. Later, we resisted this coup. We called the head of the coup a junta and made many definitions. Against this, they tried to defend themselves because they were once victims of coups in the past, once the oppressed of the past, but now they are oppressors, because they are at the head of a coup, because they are the plotters, and because they fear the people instead of taking power from the people. Sometimes with bigger threats, sometimes by taking a step back, sometimes by attacking others, sometimes by speaking one step or one word less and acting as if they were reasonable, but they have not given up on their ambitions for this coup so far.

ADDRESSING FARMER ABDULLAH CEYLAN: 'LET THIS BE A PROMISE TO YOU...'

Throughout the whole process, tons of definitions and tons of words were spoken, but no word was as powerful as Uncle Abdullah's word. He summarized the whole process. Uncle Abdullah said: "The state cannot be governed with radishes and turnips. It is governed with justice and law." Let this be a promise to Uncle Abdullah from here. Let this be a promise to Uncle Abdullah, who found an organic slogan like those who do organic farming, who felt it in his heart, and whose slogan smells of soil, smells of Yozgat. This order will change. Those who govern with justice, not with radishes or turnips, will lead this state.

"ONE IN EVERY 4 CHILDREN HAS TO SKIP A MEAL"

Tomorrow is April 23, National Sovereignty and Children's Day. A little while ago, in a special session, we greeted children from all over Turkey. We saw their enthusiasm and the sparkle in their eyes. I celebrate the holiday of all our children here, both in their person and in the person of the children who came to the Assembly. However, unfortunately, our country has serious problems regarding children. It is heavy even to say it. Can a country have a serious problem with children? Unfortunately, it does. One in every 4 children has to skip a meal at home. One in every 3 children goes to school and returns home without eating anything at school. Because they do not have a lunchbox or money in their pocket to buy a bagel from the canteen. Alongside those who are employed precariously, there are those who are employed at a child's age. We have a generation deprived of quality education, and our children who start life with a difference that they cannot close because of their father's or mother's economic situation. And unfortunately, we have children whom we cannot keep safe and cannot protect. Last year on this day, before April 23, Narin, Matya Ahmet, and baby Sıla, who was only 2 years old and whom her mother would have dressed up beautifully on the holiday, were alive.

AHMET MINGUZZI MURDER

Before all of our eyes, 14-year-old Ahmet Minguzzi, who went to buy skateboarding gear, was brutally, barbarically, and crazily murdered. There are still those who attack his grave, threaten his mother, and threaten the journalists who interview his family. There are those who say, "We are powerful," with pictures of pigeons in their hands, with drug stashes wrapped around the legs of those pigeons, and with the places where they send the drugs. There are those who say, "We are challenging." On one hand, there are millions of people in this country seeking justice, and on the other hand, there are mothers and fathers who cannot leave their homes and cannot turn on their lights in a dark room because of injustice and the wrongs they have experienced. Therefore, on the 105th anniversary of the establishment of this Assembly and the 102nd anniversary of the establishment of the Republic, I swear that we will establish security in this country both politically and for every baby, child, mother, and father. We will establish the rule of law. We will establish justice. We will also feed our children. We will protect them. From now on, we will not leave anyone's child abandoned in this country.

DIPLOMA CANCELLATION FOR EKREM İMAMOĞLU

A small group that does not represent the nation or the state put a coup plan they had been preparing for a long time into action 34 days ago. We had said, 'You are declaring war on us,' and they did such things that we took them and put them on our heads. Whatever a person or a party that has had war declared on them does, whatever a people does, we stood against them with the same courage and the same determination without fear. But they did things that are not even in the laws of war. The cancellation of a diploma from 31 years ago; according to the laws of war, you may win a war, but the official documents, records, and title deeds of that country are valid. The laws of war do not make the title deeds in a country invalid just because you won a war against that country, and they do not eliminate property rights. A state respects even the document given by another state. This is the requirement of the law. That document is valid.

'A PERSON KNOWS THE JOB FROM THEMSELVES' CASE

While there is no proven crime, we are facing a conspiracy inspired by FETÖ members, based only on the statements of secret witnesses. While there is no concrete justification for the arrest when looking at the file and the allegations, they are unjustly holding our presidential candidate, whom 15.5 million people nominated, our 6 mayors, and nearly 100 of our friends there. 34 days have passed, and not a single allegation has been proven yet, not a single allegation has been proven. However, they appointed trustees to 24 companies and placed precautionary measures on 28 companies. Before the court was even over, they appointed trustees to the companies, knowing the result of the court from the beginning, and started to bankrupt those companies and not let those who work in those companies enter them. Because there was no crime in the file, they started to force people into perjury, and I want to express this very clearly; I even made a long explanation yesterday to a journalist, a columnist, or every word that came out of the mouth of a secret witness or a false witness or someone benefiting from effective remorse, because it was said, 'Come on, now they wanted these from TRT, let them be broadcast.' In the end, I said this, and I say this to all my journalist friends here. I had dozens of meetings in Silivri. Information about more is coming one by one. What is happening in Silivri today is this: An operation carried out in a rush, an indictment that cannot even be written. There are secret witnesses, three pieces of wood named Çınar, Ladin, and Meşe. According to the European Court of Human Rights and our Constitutional Court, the statements of these secret witnesses must be supported by concrete evidence. It says that action cannot be taken only with the statement of a secret witness. What are they doing? The secret witness is slandering tons of things; I told you last week. Tayyip Bey called the prosecutor and told him how they did these things in the past. The summary of the case is that this is a 'A person knows the job from themselves' case. Tayyip Erdoğan said, 'This is how we did it.' In Akbil, we did it like this, we did it like this with advertising companies, we did it like this with billboards, be sure they are doing it like this too. The secret witness statements are actually tips given by Tayyip Erdoğan and his friends. They set out saying these things, but they cannot find a single piece of evidence.

"THOSE WHO CANNOT PROVE IT WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE IN THE FUTURE"

There is a MASAK report, it is falling apart, but every single account movement revealed in the report is being answered and does not remain unanswered. Prosecutors remain helpless in the face of words spoken in desperation, and no one from our side hangs their head. In this situation, they turned to those who do business with the AK Party, do business with the ministries, did business with the IMM during the AK Party period, and then came to this side, and forced them to commit perjury. There were those who accepted; they will be held accountable in the future, we will follow them one by one in court. When they cannot prove those perjuries—if they could prove them, they wouldn't be a liar, they would be a witness—but those who cannot prove what they were forced by the prosecutor's office to 'say this, testify like this' will be held accountable in the future. When the false witnesses could not reach concrete evidence, they started to engage in a business of clinging to effective remorse. I have nothing to say to anyone who benefits from effective remorse and whose process is ongoing. It is a right in the law, they have benefited from it. What have they said, what have they done? When you look at their statement, there is no situation that accuses Mayor Ekrem, nor anything else. But I have nothing to say to this. I only say this, friends, I am telling all members of the press, dozens of our friends are telling this: 'They took me saying, "You will go to the hospital," and I saw that the building I went to was not a hospital. I entered a room, no stretcher, no doctor, no nurse. The prosecutor entered, my lawyer was not with me, and he said, "You didn't do the right thing there, were you afraid of your lawyer, did they pressure you, the statement you gave didn't satisfy me, I will walk out of this door, you won't see your children's faces for 10 years." "I think you should give a more correct statement." Another one says, "They took me, I passed through 6 doors in the prison. They acted politely, sat me in a chair, opened a screen in front of me, I looked and the prosecutor was in front of me. You see me, I'm here for 5 more minutes. Make your decision within 5 minutes."

REACTION TO TRT TURNING INTO A CASE BULLETIN

TRT, which is supposed to do impartial broadcasting according to the law, is serving a handful of junta members today, not 86 million. Ekrem İmamoğlu, our dear mayor, was caught by a TRT channel while switching from channel to channel in his cell in Silivri, just as he is now. He couldn't believe what he saw. He made a post rebelling against this. Upon this, harsh reactions came from the RTÜK chairman and the Directorate of Communications, almost as if they were ashamed or embarrassed. They say: a politician targeting TRT while in custody is an attack on the public's right to receive news. RTÜK Chairman Ebubekir Şahin, who swept under the rug the two applications made by RTÜK member Tuncay Keser on March 22 and April 10 regarding TRT's biased broadcasts, is trying to be a shield for TRT. Let me give a reminder. In the first 4 months of this year, in the first 4 months of this year, RTÜK fined opposition channels, Now, Halk TV, and Sözcü 7 times for violating the presumption of innocence, a basic rule that someone being tried is innocent until the trial is over. What is the reason? Because they call the hitman a murderer before the Sinan Ateş case is over. What is the reason? They fined them because they said the defendants there were the murderers of those here regarding the Kartalkaya fire. Because doing this before the trial is over is a crime. Ebubekir Şahin, for God's sake, if you have this much dignity, this much conscience, this much fairness, this much sense of justice, even as small as a pinhead, required by the duty you have performed. 'Irregularity in İmamoğlu's construction projects'. TRT Haber, Gece Bakışı program. 'The allegations are funny, but the roof height, terrace size, and floor plan have been changed contrary to the project.' Look, they are accusing İmamoğlu of making the roof height 20 cm higher, and enlarging the terrace, shrinking the terrace, and enlarging the bedroom. 'Irregularity in İmamoğlu's construction projects'. File pictures, this is TRT. Let alone the trial ending, the presumption of innocence, there is no indictment yet. There is confidentiality in the file. The file has been served to TRT. TRT doesn't even say 'allegation of irregularity'. "'Usage permit for irregular structure. Beylikdüzü Municipality issued a permit for a structure contrary to the project.' Usage permit for irregular structure. This is a blue file. Supposedly the file is secret. No one knows. Lawyers can barely see it. TRT uses these expressions: 'For the students who rebelled, provocateurs who attacked the police entered the IMM building whose windows they broke.' It shows the ground floor of the building, March 22. It accuses our children of being provocateurs. Whereas, while they were running away from the police, the Istanbul Provincial Chairman, dear Özgür Chairman, said: 'My Chairman, we opened the doors, the children are running away from the gas.' Then they went out the other door and went home safely.

"IN THE END, THEY WERE SLAPPED BY THE NATION"

Look at the balloons: 'Ekrem İmamoğlu. Establishing a criminal organization, rigging the tender, acting with businessmen, irregularities in tenders, service procurements, and collusive contracts.' It doesn't even say allegation, allegation. It doesn't even say 'allegation'. These guys broadcast this for 4 hours all night. After that, after that, they also say to Halk TV, "You called them the murderers of Sinan Ateş, the court is not over yet, pay the fine." Where is justice? Where is fairness? Where are these things done by TRT, whose salaries are paid from all of our taxes, with all of our money in this country? Every coup targets TRT. In every coup, they read a declaration from TRT. It is the first target of the junta, but how the junta members went and took over TRT on July 15, but in the end, they were slapped by the nation. The March 19 junta may have taken over TRT, but the nation is with us.

"THEY BURNED THE MONEY OUT OF FEAR OF İMAMOĞLU"

They burned 50 billion dollars, 1.9 trillion liras, to keep the exchange rate. This financial arm of the coup, called Mehmet Şimşek. He says, 'We collected these reserves for these days.' However, look, he took this money and held it so that the dollar wouldn't spike when the reaction rose after putting Ekrem İmamoğlu in prison, when the dollar rose, when the stock market rose, when the stock market crashed, when it lost 31.5 billion in value in 1 day, when the small investor was crushed, when the foreign investor took their money and fled abroad, when 3 billion dollars worth of stocks were sold and left. This 31.5, 50 billion dollars, 1.9 trillion liras. Here, the cameraman friend who is recording our broadcast, a clean brother of ours. If we said to this brother, "Come here, this 1.9 trillion lira is entrusted to you. Take this money, spend it in the right place." If my brother says, "The farmers of this nation have been crushed a lot. The total debt of all farmers in Turkey is 1 trillion liras. The total debt is this much." With 1 trillion liras of the 1.9 trillion, all farmer debts are closed. With the remaining 900 billion liras, you give 412,000 liras per farmer, support. 412,000 liras buys a tractor that is not very old today, for example. You can give 412,000 liras to every farmer. Or you can close all the debts, and give the farmer who has that debt money on top of it as much as their debt. They burned such money, out of fear of Ekrem İmamoğlu.

"KANAL İSTANBUL IS A DIABOLICAL TARGET"

-The political target of this coup was to block the path of the CHP and İmamoğlu. This coup also has a diabolical target. That is Kanal İstanbul. There are 19 days left until the operation, the head of the junta is sitting and looking at the Kanal İstanbul project. Murat Kurum, who is a minister today, had said, 'Kanal İstanbul is not on our agenda.' Those who staged this coup have made the planning for 24 thousand residences. They published advertisements in the Arab press regarding Kanal İstanbul. İmamoğlu stopped this project, he was elected, and a conspiracy case was fabricated. The Arab media is now advertising the apartments that will be sold there.

When the mayor of IMM, the guardian of Istanbul, became Ekrem İmamoğlu, when he said, 'Either the Canal or Istanbul!', when he said, 'The name of this project is not Kanal İstanbul, it is betrayal İstanbul', and when the people of Istanbul elected Ekrem İmamoğlu, that is why a terrorist organization will be fabricated, a conspiracy case will be fabricated. Both will be put into operation at the same time. While struggling with the thief stamp, a trustee will be appointed. That incompetent ambitious brother of mine will go and sit there as a trustee, not with the justice of the nation, but with the justice of Tayyip Bey. If he had sat him right next to him, things would be on track. When it didn't happen, when the people of Istanbul said, "Get up from there, Ekrem will sit there," they are trying to appoint a trustee and make someone else sit there. And the Arab media is now advertising the sale of these apartments. And friends went there, we have no news, without notifying İSKİ, Sazlıdere in Istanbul, most of the European side is being pumped from Anatolia to Europe. They changed the drinking water usage of the European side's own water reservoir, which was 100 percent, to 0 percent 3 years ago. They said, “The water here can no longer be used.” You will not use it. Why, what is the reason? The reason is they are opening its surroundings to construction. Now it cannot collect water there either. Now its cleanliness cannot be protected either. They decided to leave Sazlıdere and find water elsewhere. They did not notify İSKİ. We are learning it now, we are learning it now. They opened a tender through the ministry, 24 tenders. Currently, over 100 companies, together with subcontractors, thousands of bulldozers and trucks are working there. They still cannot build the canal. The guardian of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu, is preventing that. But they have started the construction of the residences around it. Why? They promised, they promised, they sold it. Maybe they took the money for the part we don't know about in advance. That is why it is good that the people of Istanbul put Ekrem Bey there as a guardian. It is good that this coup attempt happened and while they were doing the trustee warm-up exercises, 1 million people stood up in Saraçhane in Istanbul. 2.2 million people stood up in Maltepe. It is good that they operated those tractors in Yozgat. It is good that they saved Istanbul from them.

The summary of the business is this, friends. The summary of the business is this. Every Wednesday in a district in Istanbul, every Saturday in a province in Turkey, we will continue to raise our objection and continue the struggle.

"THEY PUT YOZGAT BETWEEN ZIMBABWE AND VENEZUELA"

Look, interest rates will fall by 2.5 percent per month. 'I know very well, Tayyip Bey,' he said, and raised the interest rate, which was 9, to over 50. After the election, he sent Nebati, and in his place, he brought Mehmet Şimşek, who is rational, supposedly rational, supposedly democratic, supposedly honest, the most important leg of the coup, the financial leg, whom no one in the whole world will look at anymore. They say 2.5 percentage points, 2500 basis points, 2.5%. Supposedly inflation will fall as it falls. Why? While he could have succeeded like Germany, like America, by giving interest above inflation in the past, he shot it up with Tayyip Bey's stubbornness, now it was falling step by step. On the day it was supposed to fall by 2.5 points, there was an increase of 3.5 points. 6 percent, the interest rate equivalent of İmamoğlu's arrest. That day, the European Central Bank lowered the interest rate from 2.75 to 2.5. We made the interest rate 46 percent in Turkey. The second highest interest rate in the world. Do you know where we are? The highest interest rate is in Venezuela, there is also a great struggle between the government and the opposition because of the election result, the elections were not held fairly. The one in third place is Zimbabwe, with 35 percent. You know, there are those who are at the best point in the economy, we are lined up from A to Z. They put our Yozgat between Zimbabwe and Venezuela, you know there is Y between the letters V and Z. Shame on those who put Yozgat between Zimbabwe and Venezuela, those who put Turkey, those who put Ankara, Istanbul. The citizen's consumer loan and credit card debt increased by 172 billion liras.

"LOOKING INTO ERDOĞAN'S EYES..."

During the late Ecevit's term, Erdoğan, who said to 68,000 unappointed teachers, 'Oh Ecevit, oh heartless Ecevit, if you weren't going to appoint them, why did you educate these children?', has graduated 1,045,000 teachers, whom I will ask, 'If you weren't going to appoint them, why did you educate these children?'. Now, he is trying to appoint only 15,000 of those 1,045,000 teachers and select them from those close to him through the academy method and interview method he established himself. But on the other hand, he is trying to dismiss 6,000 of the best teachers from the schools called project schools, which are the apple of the country's eye, where the best students enter by exam, and replace them with 6,000 pro-government teachers from his own union. The question that the voter should ask while looking into Erdoğan's eyes is this: You could not win the election in the first round on May 14. When you came before me on May 28, you said, 'Interviews will be abolished.' I voted for that. You said that in the inflationary period, the minimum wage would not be raised once, but if necessary, it would be raised four times in July, March, July, October, and December. I voted for that. You said we would never let the retiree be crushed by inflation, I voted for that. You promised that there is no Kanal İstanbul in the election. You got votes for that. Now you are doing the opposite of all of them. The voter has the right to ask, 'Look into my eyes, oh Erdoğan, aren't you ashamed, aren't you ashamed?'

'RÜMEYSA ÖZTÜRK' REACTION

PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk was detained in the USA on March 25 because she wrote an article supporting the Palestinian cause. Even Rümeysa's request to be released on bail was rejected, but there is not a single sound from Erdoğan. Trump reminds him. 'I like him,' he says. 'I get along well. I had a priest in my hand, I took him from him,' he says. Remember, Erdoğan was saying this to Trump: 'As long as this soul remains in this body, you cannot get your priest without me giving you the priest. Oh Trump, give the priest, take the priest,' he was saying. The person he called a priest that day lived in the United States until the day he died. They never, ever gave him the priest in America. He is talking about Fethullah Gülen. But Trump took his own priest with a harsh phone call. Now he is reminding him with a smirk. 'I took my priest,' he says. Meaning, 'Watch your step. I am someone who takes what I want from you without giving you anything.' Oh, at least on top of this sentence. We are dealing with an exhausted person who cannot even make a phone call and say, 'Look, I gave you the priest then, now release our daughter Rümeysa,' who trembles in front of Trump, and who even gets the permission for the coup he will stage in Istanbul from Trump, friends. He could not even protect our daughter Ayşenur, who was killed in Palestine.

News Source: 12punto