Özgür Özel's message on İmamoğlu at the Socialist International: 'Turkey is in a process of a civil coup'

Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Özgür Özel gave important messages regarding the current agenda at the Socialist International Council Meeting.

Delivering the closing speech, Özel made the following remarks regarding the investigation into his party's presidential candidate and IBB Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is currently detained at Silivri Prison, and his colleagues: 

"I am saying this while looking into the eyes of all my comrades in Europe: Turkey is in a process of a civil coup. Ekrem İmamoğlu and his colleagues are political prisoners; we all vouch for them and stand behind them to the end."

Highlights from Özel's speech are as follows:

"WE HAD NOT BEEN ABLE TO COME FIRST SINCE 1978"

I would like to thank all the speakers and everyone who contributed to such a meeting. The International has a wonderful staff, especially given the strong solidarity you have shown yesterday and today. I would like to thank all the professionals and administrators, in the person of Chantal and Paulina, as well as the members of the presidium and vice-presidents with whom I serve under the presidency of Pedro Sanchez, and the institutional identities and individual members of each of our sister parties who rushed here from all over the world to contribute to the meeting of the Socialist International, of which they are members, and to show solidarity with us during the difficult process we are experiencing in Turkey.

We hosted 89 parties from 79 countries, and we worked together with them. As I conclude, I see it as a responsibility to repeat a point I have expressed in my previous speeches. Today, Istanbul is a city whose will has been usurped.

A year ago, 16 million Istanbulites thought and deliberated on who should govern the city. They looked at the services provided over the last 5 years. They went to the ballot box and tasked Ekrem İmamoğlu, whom they voted for in increasing numbers each time, with more than one out of every two votes, to manage Istanbul for another 5 years.

Unfortunately, we had not been able to be the first party since 1978, since 1977. Even though we could not stomach coming in second or third, or occasionally falling below the threshold, we always found the fault in ourselves. We said we must work harder, we must engage in self-criticism. We said we must rejuvenate, we must give more opportunities to women. We said we must correctly analyze the winds blowing in the world, adapt them correctly to Turkey, and establish the right language. We never blamed the voters and we never sought help from any non-democratic focus.

"THEY COULD NOT SHOW THE PATIENCE WE SHOWED FOR 47 YEARS FOR 47 DAYS"

During the period when we were in the most intense, argumentative, and contentious conflict with the Justice and Development Party (AKP), a religious community with whom they were actually practicing politics, supporting each other materially and spiritually, and giving whatever they asked for, entered into a conflict with them and attempted a coup. In the coup, a coup is being staged against the first party. We are getting rid of the AKP. We did not say that Erdoğan, who has caused so many difficulties in this country, will be toppled. On the contrary, we called them. Open the parliament, let us come, let us talk, let us stand together. We said that those who come with the ballot box leave with the ballot box. We said we would stand behind whoever the nation chose, whoever the people chose. In the speech I gave in parliament, in the speech I gave in parliament in the middle of the night, I said: We are the main opposition party. During a coup, a coup is naturally staged against the government. But everyone turns and looks at the opposition, and looks into the eyes of the main opposition. I said I am speaking to those looking into my eyes. We are in the main opposition until elections are held and our people and nation give a new mandate; we are aware of our duty, and we stand behind democracy and the elected parliament.

Those who applauded us that day should have shown the patience we showed for 47 years for 47 months after the election. There were 47 months until the presidential election calendar began. They could not even show it for 47 days. In the first election they lost, in the first election they fell to second place, they attempted a coup, and they designed such a coup that coups are always staged against the existing government, but the existing government attempted to stage a coup against the future. They attempted to stage a coup against those who would come to power, against the government and president who would govern Turkey in the future.

"SOMETIMES IT IS HARD TO EXPLAIN TO THE WORLD"

They also staged a coup against those elected in the past local elections, but they mainly attempted to stage a coup against our future, against what is to come, against Turkey's hope for the future. We are the people who vouch for the innocence of Ekrem İmamoğlu and all our friends in prison, and who fight alongside them because they are held inside for political reasons. Sometimes it is hard to explain this to the world. They thought we could not explain it. First, they said, 'You cannot explain it, you cannot complain about Turkey abroad.' Then they thought, 'The European Union attaches importance to GRECO criteria and distances itself from corruption and theft.' They thought that by inventing a lie about supporting a terrorist organization in Turkey, voters with nationalist sensitivities would turn their backs on us. They said that after a few weeks, no one would be able to look anyone in the eye.

But this morning, I went to show solidarity with Mayor Ekrem, to commemorate the babies, children, mothers, and spouses who lost their lives in a hotel fire, to make those reactions visible, to make violence against women visible, and to make the demand for gender equality visible; I ran a marathon in the early hours and came back.

"TURKEY IS IN A PROCESS OF A CIVIL COUP"

I will leave here and go to Turkey's fourth-largest city, Bursa, to hold a large rally, which we hold every weekend, but which we moved to Sunday evening this week because it coincided with the Socialist International. I am saying this while looking into the eyes of all my comrades in Europe, from the tens of thousands in the morning to the hundreds of thousands and millions in the evening: Turkey is in a process of a civil coup. Ekrem İmamoğlu and his colleagues are political prisoners; we all vouch for them and stand behind them to the end.

"WE DEMOCRATS ARE THE ONLY ONES WHO WILL SAY 'STOP'"

For 5 days, we were all together in an ancient city, a city that has been the capital of three empires, a city that our ancestors contributed to and that has contributed to all of us, in the capital of peace, the capital of democracy, the capital of art, the capital of tourism, and according to one writer, if the world were a country, the capital of the world: Istanbul. Such cities are the enemy of such meetings.

Halls empty out, but with such full participation, with great seriousness, while the Bosphorus of Istanbul was calling you, while its beauties were calling you, while its history was calling you, you discussed the texts regarding solidarity here, regarding solidarity with Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Turkey, and you conducted a very valuable negotiation all together. I thank you for this.

Even the beauty of Istanbul did not damage your spirit of solidarity and kept you in this square, in these halls. I thank you all again for this meeting discipline. The common idea is this, the common idea of this hall, we listened to many strong texts, we all voted. If there is autocracy in the world, we democrats are the only structure that will say stop to autocrats, regardless of language, religion, or identity. And the number of those democrats is not small at all. Moreover, those democrats are not alone, no matter where in the world they live. All the democrats of the world are determined to stand shoulder to shoulder and fight like comrades. This determination and the spirit of comradely struggle is a source of courage and hope for millions and billions of people resisting poverty, political oppression, wars, and all kinds of plunder.

"ACTIVE EFFORTS OF SOCIAL DEMOCRATS"

Dear comrades, we have discussed many topics in depth at our meetings. We talked a lot about the state of democracy today, which is one of our main agendas. We are facing obstacles and insecurity regarding women's participation in the workforce and retirees receiving their due. Young people are in great unemployment and despair. Workers, rural and urban poor are in more difficulty than ever before. The middle class is struggling with the threat of dispossession. Income inequality is deepening every day. All these problems are serious and require urgent solutions. Ensuring equal representation of women in business life and politics, fighting against gender inequality, and the effective participation of young people in politics and business life will all be possible with the active efforts of social democrats in the world.

On the other hand, we also had the opportunity to address international developments, of course. We talked about the massacre Israel is carrying out in Gaza. We talked about the occupation in Ukraine, which has cost tens of thousands of lives. The uncertainties in Syria, conflicts in Africa, refugee crises, climate crises—these are crises that the current order both feeds and is fed by. The world we live in is an interacting world.

"THE ONLY POWER THAT WILL DEFEAT DICTATORS IS SOLIDARITY"

The painful consequences of wars, poverty, and many crises are jumping from one country's borders to another, meaning they are circulating all over the world. We are facing a difficult situation that I mentioned in my opening speech, and that we had the opportunity to talk about with each of you individually during yesterday's meetings and dinner. We had concerns. In the second quarter of the 21st century, would robots talking to each other and learning from each other through artificial intelligence threaten humanity? Unfortunately, this debate stops and continues, but the biggest threat facing the world is that we are dealing with autocrats and dictators who talk to each other, stand in solidarity with each other, and learn from each other, and the only power that will defeat them is the solidarity that this hall will produce.

We know that if the problems of societies have global effects, the solutions must also be on a global scale. Therefore, it is more essential than ever today to wage a common struggle against poverty, war, climate crisis, labor exploitation, and gender inequality. The Socialist International, which makes this determination, heralds a bright and hopeful world to the world from Istanbul, despite this entire dark picture.

MESSAGE ON PALESTINE, UKRAINE, AND SYRIA

What opens the door to that bright and spacious world is the solidarity between us. Thanks to this, we will continue to fight against poverty, injustice, and autocracy. We will continue to extend a helping hand to the rightful resistance of the Palestinian people under occupation and heavy oppression. We will support all efforts to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine and to build a sustainable climate of peace all over the world, especially in Syria. The duty of social democrats and socialists is undoubtedly not just to strengthen solidarity between the management cadres of our parties. Today, threats to democracy also deeply affect local governments, that is, our municipalities. I have to express this as the leader of a party whose elected mayors are kept in prison. Moreover, the party I lead is still the country's leading party by a wide margin according to all public opinion polls, the party that receives the highest rate of support from society. If democracy is also threatened from the local level, the solidarity between our local governments must also be raised to the highest level.

The messages of support that came from mayors from all over the world during the March 19 coup were very valuable. The presence here of our Mayor of Athens, our Mayor of Paris, who rushed here in those days, our Mayor of Athens who is present at this meeting again today, our Mayor of Paris who expressed his strongest support with a video message, the Mayor of Nicosia of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the valuable deputy mayor of Vienna, the Vienna Municipality, the Mayor of Sorua, the former mayor of Florence, and the Mayor of Kulem added strength to our power.

On this occasion, I request a heartfelt, strong applause from all of you for all the local administrators who did not spare their feelings of solidarity. Along with this, topics such as strengthening the relationship between our local administrators, sharing experiences, and transferring progressive practices are very important. We have been talking about and maturing these for years. In this context, we are both very happy and feel a great responsibility that we have matured the Socialist International local governments network in our meetings this year, and that we have made it active, decided on it, and implemented it with the meeting we held yesterday, and that the Mayor of Muğla Metropolitan Municipality, Ahmet Aras, whom you all know and who hosts you in Bodrum, Marmaris, and Didim, which are Turkey's most important tourism cities, is taking the lead in this regard.

The most effective emergence, operation, experience sharing, and signing of important projects of the Socialist International local governments network is a responsibility we have undertaken as the Republican People's Party and one of the most important tasks before us. Today, we are leaving here more hopeful than yesterday and more determined about the future. What we must carry in our minds and hearts as we leave is this.

Despite everything, democracy, justice, equality, and a peaceful world can be built with our joint efforts. It must be emphasized once again that the prerequisite for such a world is solidarity. I sincerely believe that by joining hands, we will make this world more just, more prosperous, and democratic. I am honored to walk shoulder to shoulder with you and to be a comrade. We are going from here to our other big city, Bursa, and we will hold our 7th major provincial meeting after the March 19 coup.

CONCLUDED BY SAYING 'THERE IS NO SALVATION ALONE'

Every Wednesday in a district of Istanbul, every weekend in a province of Anatolia, we will continue to meet with our people, not to hold rallies, but to take action with them to achieve results. With the strength we receive from your solidarity, we will fight for our country and our future without stopping for a moment. I thank each of you individually once again for your participation.

When you return to your countries, I would like to express that you should carry greetings, warm love, and the best feelings from Turkey to both the members of our sister parties and all the citizens of your countries, that each of us in this hall should see the homes in Turkey and Istanbul as the home of a brother, and that whoever happens to pass by here, we will welcome them as if we were welcoming a relative, as if we were hosting a brother, at the end of a phone call or a WhatsApp message. We love you all very much. And we finish as we started. We will continue to repeat this sentence until we achieve this to the end. There is no salvation alone, either all together or none of us. I greet you all with respect.

News Source: 12punto