Breaking News... İmamoğlu announces his roadmap! 'There is no salvation alone, let's get to work together now!'

The Republican People's Party (CHP) will hold a primary election on March 23 to determine its presidential candidate.

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu will enter the primary election, which has drawn all eyes, as the sole candidate.

In this direction, CHP Chairman Özgür Özel met with IMM Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu at the CHP Headquarters during a closed group meeting prior to the Presidential Primary Election Meeting. Following the meeting, the CHP's Presidential Primary Election Meeting titled "Come, Choose, Make History" began.

IMM Mayor İmamoğlu announced his roadmap at the critical meeting.

Today we are setting out! We are now on the path to making our state democratic and strong, our society wealthy and peaceful, our citizens equal and free, and political competition pluralistic, fair, and civilized. https://t.co/Qq8srQr1do

— Ekrem İmamoğlu (@ekrem_imamoglu) February 27, 2025

Reacting to the detention of Beykoz Mayor Alaattin Köseler in a dawn raid, İmamoğlu said, "I didn't even get my diploma, and they have started interfering with my circle again."

Highlights from İmamoğlu's statements are as follows:

"Dear fellow travelers, today is a historic day. Today is the first day, the first announcement of our party setting out so that, for the first time in Turkey's history and very rarely in the world, the members of a party choose its presidential candidate.

Frankly, I would have liked to start my speech with different emotions at such a historic moment, but unfortunately, as our Secretary General also expressed, we are once again experiencing the shame of one of the disgraceful practices that have been inflicted upon our country for months, which makes us all bow our heads and even makes people doubt their own lives.

DETENTION OF BEYKOZ MAYOR

Our Beykoz Mayor Alaattin Köseler, a 65-year-old from Paşabahçe, well-educated, who has served as mayor before, knows state etiquette, has established good dialogues with people, has made himself loved, and whose service is still heard in people's homes even though his previous term was in the 90s, had his home raided around 4 a.m.

They entered with a police raid while his wife was sleeping, conducted a search, and detained him. Whatever the accusation against him is, what kind of claim is it to conduct a dawn raid at 4 a.m. on a mayor who would never hesitate to run to give a statement if called? What kind of personal ambition, what kind of reflection of anger is this?

"THE PROSECUTOR WHOSE SIGNATURE IS ON THE DOCUMENT HAS NO KNOWLEDGE OF THAT DOCUMENT!"

You might say this is not understandable, but I know why this anger and this reflection of ambition exist. This anger dates back to a week ago. As you know, police came to our Beykoz Municipality last week in the evening as well. They asked for some files. They had a document signed by a prosecutor in their hands. Do you know what happened? That prosecutor didn't even know about it. The prosecutor whose signature appeared on the document didn't even know about that document. Naturally, there was no signature either. I don't understand that document, but when the barcode on that document was scanned, nothing could be reached or seen from that barcode.

The situation became chaotic. When this matter came to light, the owner of the bad plan was clearly very angry when this was not implemented that evening. As if turning the matter into a personal vendetta, a raid was conducted on the mayor's house at 4 a.m. Disgraceful!

These are not normal things. These are truly shameful things, bad deeds that we never want to see in this country, that we never want to happen to anyone, that we don't want even one person to experience.

And unfortunately, our mayor is currently at the police station on Vatan Street in Istanbul. Of course, they want to get us used to these very bad things in Turkey.

"THEY WILL EXPERIENCE THE GREATEST DEFEAT IN HISTORY"

No matter what they do, they will see that this is unsustainable. We will show them all that they cannot sustain this. The people in this hall and their comrades will show it. Everything changes very quickly in Turkey. That ballot box will eventually come before the nation!

The President and this management approach, who are trying to design politics, will realize on that day that they have not been able to design anything in the minds of this nation, this great nation, the Turkish nation. Do you know what they will experience? They will experience the greatest defeat in history. They will experience the greatest defeat.

A few years pass quickly. They think there is a group of people in front of them who will give up. Never! I have tens of millions of people represented by the people here who will make them experience the greatest defeat in history. I want to express that clearly here. I am looking forward to saying goodbye to them, to sending them off. There is no one in this hall who would say, "Let this happen to one person," regarding these unlawful practices, these bad practices, let me state again. There are people here who would say, "Let it not happen to even one person." Therefore, we believe in the rule of law and will continue to fight on this path. My dear friends, in this journey we have embarked upon with the responsibility given to us by our precious party, this great roof, we have very deep, very great responsibilities, difficulties, a strenuous journey...

"WE NEED THE WILL AND DETERMINATION OF MUSTAFA KEMAL AND HIS FRIENDS TODAY"

Frankly, we are all at a crossroads. At an important crossroads of our history, we are on the verge of determining the route of the future in the new century of our republic. We all need the will, determination, and resolve of Mustafa Kemal and his friends, who were faced with the responsibility of building the economy, justice, and unity of a nation and a country that had been exhausted after a great destruction 102 years ago.

My dear fellow travelers, today we are setting out again, all together. As the world is being rebuilt, we will decide together what kind of place Turkey will have in this new world. For 102 years, the Republican People's Party has made the most vital decisions at the most important crossroads. Look, we have the signature of this great roof, our party, in the fact that we have been living in a republic where everyone is an equal citizen before the law since 1923.

The will of the Republican People's Party also exists in the construction of a state based on the national will and a nation based on citizenship. We also have our signature in the establishment of a national economy by giving the right reactions at the Izmir Economic Congress in 1923 and during the global economic depression in 1929. We have our signature in the transportation infrastructure established under conditions where capital was very scarce in the country, in the factories, banks, and economic enterprises opened for the production of basic needs.

Our party also succeeded in ensuring that Turkey emerged unscathed from the Second World War, from that great global destruction where nearly 80 million people died, thanks to the diplomatic foresight of the Republican People's Party administration. We also ensured Turkey's transition to multi-party democracy. We were the ones who handed over power to the rival we were defeated by with maturity and with a sense of responsibility to the will of this country and this nation.

"WE WERE THE ONES WHO SAID NEITHER THE OPPRESSED NOR THE OPPRESSOR, BUT A FAIR ORDER"

The Republican People's Party, which left its mark on every moment of the first quarter-century of the Republic, also directed the country's politics during the periods when it was not in power after 1950. In the 1970s, while a wave of equality and freedom was rising all over the world, we said "left of center" at that time. We said social democracy.

We were the ones who said, "The land belongs to those who till it, the water to those who use it," and "neither the oppressed nor the oppressor, but a fair order." In the 1970s, by forming a coalition with the National Salvation Party led by the late Necmettin Erbakan, the mind of the Republican People's Party showed us and made this country experience that different segments of society could meet around the same ideal and that unity instead of division was possible on national issues.

The Republican People's Party was again at the helm of our state, which showed strength and determination to both our allies and our adversaries by carrying out the 1974 Cyprus Peace Operation. The Republican People's Party, which inspired all oppressed peoples by creating one of the most revolutionary movements in the world under 1923 conditions while a 600-year-old empire was collapsing, had also done the right thing by keeping up with the change in the world and Turkey in the 1960s and 70s.

"THIS GOVERNMENT, WHICH HAS CAUSED UNPRECEDENTED COST OF LIVING..."

My dear friends, however, we could not show the same ability after 1980. We could not come to power, not because of the nation's fault, but because of our own shortcomings. When we could not come to power, our Turkey moved away from being a social state of law and from democracy. It moved away. Over the years, it fell into the hands of governments that became more authoritarian and could not protect our country from crises, and even allowed it to be buried in crises.

Because we have not been able to come to power for many years, we entered the second century of the republic with a state whose deep-rooted institutions have weakened, a dysfunctional Parliament, a bureaucracy whose merit is questioned, unfortunately a collapsed justice system, a country that has moved away from the democratic world, and a population half of which is below the poverty line. And we entered the second century of our republic with this government that separates our citizens into "those who are local and national, and those who are not," is intolerant of the opposition, has shattered justice, collapsed education, and caused unprecedented cost of living in our country.

"MUSTAFA KEMAL'S WILL, İNÖNÜ'S FORESIGHT, ECEVİT'S EXCITEMENT..."

My dear fellow travelers, there is something we need to take away from here: Not to forget that we have to put an end to this. We have to put an end to this. We cannot accept this state of affairs. That is why the will of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who united citizens with equality and brought them together in the idea of being a nation and a shared destiny; the foresight of İsmet İnönü, who transitioned our country to multi-party democracy and handed over power with maturity after a lost election race; and the innovative excitement of Bülent Ecevit, who carried the social democracy tradition to our lands with the struggle for equality and freedom, illuminate our path, and we will run together on this path. We have to run.

With this will, this foresight, and this excitement, we are setting out on a journey to make our nation the owner of the state once again. Two years ago, I said, "We cannot expect different results by doing the same things; we need to change. I believe that the Republican People's Party and Turkey will change in this way."

Because I knew that if the Republican People's Party changes, Turkey changes. The Republican People's Party shook itself off, began to change, and initiated the change. At the 2023 convention, it threw off the post-election collapse and the hopelessness after the lost general election, and with this shaking off, we have been Turkey's leading party since March 31, 2024. And we must declare from here that we have to set out now. Now we must say, as all Republican People's Party members: "We have started and strengthened the change in the Republican People's Party. Our path continues very strongly. Now it is our people's turn to change Turkey. Today we are setting out on this path."

We are announcing to our nation from here that we are on the path to making our state democratic and strong, our society wealthy and peaceful, our citizens equal and free, and political competition pluralistic, fair, and civilized. My dear fellow travelers, we will make a decision again.

"OUR RIVAL IS EXPERIENCING GREAT PANIC"

We are setting out on this decision journey all together. We will determine our presidential candidate and start a great and blessed journey. Our party has made a decision to determine a candidate. Frankly, there has been great excitement in society since our esteemed Chairman announced this decision.

Our people saw that this government is not without rivals, that there is a strong option, and they became very hopeful.

Our rival, on the other hand, is experiencing great panic. Because until today, they thought they were without rivals. They even thought they could determine their rivals themselves. They thought their power was infinite. They thought the CHP could not ensure its unity, would drown in its internal tensions, and would leave the political stage to them.

Because we are going to determine a candidate and because of this process, which will be a democracy revolution for the democratic Turkey we have put forward, they have fallen into great anxiety and fear. They are afraid! They have started to abuse the authority this nation gave them to the end for that reason.

They have somehow plotted a prison sentence of up to 25 years against me and they want it. They want to impose a political ban and cancel our party's convention.

They are following the process to appoint a trustee to our party. Their eyes are so darkened that they have forgotten that this nation is not discouraged by their decisions, that it never sacrifices its choices to the oppression of tyrants, and that it never allows its right to vote to be taken away from it. They think that they can seize the nation's decision with the temporary powers they have. They think they can stop the people's party in the courts. Pathetic, helpless, incapable! Let us remind them…

The CHP is the people themselves. It is the people, the people!

İmamoğlu is also a child of this people, of this nation. You cannot take him away from the nation. They think that if they don't make İmamoğlu a candidate, they will be saved. Do you know how many İmamoğlus there are in this hall? They don't see, they don't hear. What happens if you ban all of us? An Ekrem İmamoğlu from every city, every village of this country will stand before you; every member of parliament here, every CHP provincial head, women's branch head, youth branch head, every single CHP soldier is our presidential candidate.

Action-oriented, either alone or all together. Each of our esteemed mayors, the architects of the great success of the action-oriented and pro-people Republican People's Party municipalities, is our candidate. They are candidates. Ekrem İmamoğlu is not a candidate on his own behalf on this journey. You will say, all my friends, all my companions: "Whether it's Ekrem İmamoğlu who is the candidate or me." You have to look with this belief.

There is a roadmap towards this belief, there is a great invitation to a journey towards this belief. In other words, they think that by intimidating, suppressing, and scaring us, we will abandon the nation's choice, preference, and will. You can see this from these determined eyes and those determined eyes here:

You can see the determination in that pair of blue eyes. As long as you look into our eyes, into our eyes, we will continue to remind you of your helplessness. We will continue to remind you of and show you your incapacity and your fear.

We have only one concern and one dream, my dear friends. To rebuild the state structure, legal system, democracy, economy, education, and health that a handful of people have razed to the ground; to make the state the guardian of the nation's interests, security, and future, not of a handful of people.

The great Turkish nation knows our state tradition well. In our state tradition, there is the understanding, "Keep the people alive so that the state may live." This goal requires focusing on the struggle, not on the position, above all else. This struggle requires winning the nation's approval, winning the election, and being able to govern the country well.

That is why we are setting out. You cannot set out on this path with caprice, complex, or ego. You certainly cannot set out on this path alone. We are all in this together. We are all together. Not only the Republican People's Party members, but our nation is also here. There is common sense on this path. There is a division of labor. There is a distribution of roles. I am setting out on this path with you, my fellow travelers, to fulfill my part for the struggle with the responsibility of a soldier who runs the most and works the hardest.

I am setting out on this path because I trust you as much as I trust myself. I trust because we are together on this path. I am comfortable, peaceful, and happy because we will face all the obstacles, my dear friends, all the troubles, all the costs together. I believe with all my heart that we will grow in waves on this path, that we will multiply, and that we will see all our citizens whose hope has been shaken, whose dreams have been ruined, and who are anxious about the future, especially our youth and our women, by our side.

That is why we will leave this hall today, scatter to every corner of our country, and meet with each of our members one by one. Are we ready to meet? We will show our unity, our solidarity, and our togetherness to the whole world.

That handful of political elites who were alarmed by our decision to determine a candidate, especially when our Chairman heard that we would hold a primary election, panicked even more.

"THEY ARE NURTURING THE DESIRE TO GOVERN THE COUNTRY WITHOUT ELECTIONS AND BALLOT BOXES"

Do you know why they panicked? They are afraid of being held accountable to their own base. Now they have started to fear that their own base will also want a primary election. Because they are not used to democracy. They are not used to asking anyone. Because only what one person says happens. Because they have great anxiety that their organizations and members will also come out and say, "Let our word be a partner in the decisions." They have great anxiety. Our party's candidate decision has clearly shown this government, this oppressive government, that it is not without rivals and that they will not determine the agenda or their rivals themselves.

"LET THAT HANDFUL OF PEOPLE CONTINUE TO BE AFRAID"

I thank our Chairman and all our administrators who contributed to this powerful democracy revolution of our party. Our party's primary election decision led to a democracy revolution that, yes, took place for the first time in Turkish politics. The mentality that wants to impose single-man, top-down politics on Turkey was therefore very afraid of the primary election. They will be afraid, let them be afraid. Let that handful of people continue to be afraid. Because they are nurturing the desire to govern the country without elections and ballot boxes. But we will not give them this opportunity. We will complete the first major primary election of this scale in our democracy history with the highest participation, in the most accurate and beautiful way, with the promises you just made.

As our Secretary General also expressed, we will experience and make others experience a real democracy feast. We will leave their desires for unfair politics, politics without the people, in their throats. As our Chairman frequently expresses, we will save this country from hall speeches and hall politics all together. As a Republican People's Party that has ensured its unity and solidarity on March 23, we are setting out on the path to power for that reason.

"THE NATION IS THE MASTER OF THE STATE"

As a party that is wholeheartedly committed to the principle of our founder, our leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, "Sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the nation," we will take the first step in accordance with the roadmap that our members will draw.

Members are the owners of the parties, and citizens are the owners of the country. I repeat. Members are the owners of the party, and citizens are the owners of the country. Whatever they say, that happens.

The nation is the master of the state. Whatever the nation says, that happens. The Republic was established so that everyone feels this emotion, this self-confidence, and so that administrators know their place before the citizens. Democracy exists for this. The democracy feast we will hold in every corner of the country on March 23 will be the hope of the nation and the nightmare of those who fear the ballot box.

We, the Republican People's Party members, will show the determination to change this broken order. Then the rest will come like an avalanche. On March 23, we will take all our members who will emerge from the primary election ballot box behind us and meet with all segments of society in every corner of the country. We will not engage in partisanship; we will establish the nation's government that will lift Turkey up, by multiplying and growing our struggle for salvation all together.

"I AM ADDRESSING OUR NATION, WHICH IS TIRED OF THIS DARKNESS"

From here, I want to address our dear nation. I am addressing our great nation, which is exhausted and tired of the economic crisis caused by waste, incompetence, and arrogance, whose source is especially known, of the deep poverty experienced, of the politics that creates crises every day, of the increasing social decay, of the collapse in our justice, education, and health systems, of the mafia and gangs that have swarmed everywhere, of the deaths caused by negligence in work accidents, fires, and earthquakes, and of this darkness that seems as if it will never end.

Rest assured. Keep your heart at ease. The dawn is breaking. We are setting out on a long and arduous journey. We are setting out to change this order, to rebuild hope and trust, to heal our nation that is now tired of this darkness, and to raise Turkey to the point it deserves in the world.

My dear fellow travelers, we definitely have a cause, a concern, a dream. Our concern is Turkey. Our cause is to make our state strong, democratic, and fair, and our nation peaceful and free. Our dream is to see our country among the strongest and wealthiest countries in the world.

My dear brothers and sisters, the time has come to shoulder the burden. The time has come for a journey shoulder to shoulder, arm in arm. We trust ourselves to take responsibility. Because we have not only a great cause, a great passion, but also a solid plan and strong cadres to implement this plan. These cadres are primarily Republican People's Party cadres, but even more so, they are the children of our nation. They are not just of a handful of people, I repeat, they are the children of our nation. Our nation is in need of hope, it is time to set out on a great journey for our nation, with our nation, without separating from the path of reason, science, and our state's history, experience, and accumulation, working without getting tired, without holding back in service, producing skill instead of excuses, producing solutions instead of problems, using the mind given by God for the future of the nation, while hungry for the dream of a great Turkey. We will definitely work very hard.

We will work with reason, we will work with passion, and we definitely trust in the power of our nation. With God's permission, with the will of our nation, we need the Turkey miracle all together, and we will realize this all together. My dear friends, we see it all together. While we are trying to breathe in the clutches of this degeneration and decay, the world is stepping on the gas and moving forward. We are entering a new era. The world economy and politics are experiencing a great change. New alliances are being formed globally and regionally. Wars and conflicts are taking place in every corner of our region. Unfortunately, there is now a world that talks more about war than peace, more about acting alone than cooperation, and more about winning than sharing. With the age of artificial intelligence, technology is changing faster than ever before. This new era determines the fate of countries. We are entering a new era where advanced technologies, industry, agriculture, and investment in our people have great importance. We are entering a new era where global institutions are weakening, countries are increasingly closing in on themselves, and being a country that produces and can sustain itself is gaining importance.

"THOSE WHO GOVERN THIS COUNTRY ARE NOT ASHAMED OF THIS SITUATION AT ALL"

We are entering a new era where trade routes and energy lines, which are of vital importance in the coming century, especially in this century, are changing. My dear friends, in this new era, countries that produce, govern with reason, have a strong legal order, care about the welfare of their citizens, and raise new generations very well will win. Look, these will win. Turkey is right in the middle of opportunities, but unfortunately also dangers. We don't have time. We don't have time. While the world is progressing at this speed, we are marking time, sometimes even going backward. We are entering this new era as a country whose nation has been impoverished, especially moved away from justice, whose democracy has been hollowed out, and whose economy is weak.

Those who govern this country are not ashamed of this situation at all. They see the only way to fix the economy as traveling from country to country to find money. They are not ashamed that we are faced with a new legal or political trick every day. I am addressing from here. Turkey no longer has a single day, a single moment to waste on such political games, legal pressures, and political conflicts created to protect their seats, and the gap between our country and the world's powerful countries is increasing and widening every day.

At the dawn of artificial intelligence, the developed countries of the world, my dear friends, are preparing for the greatest leap in all of human history. We see that the 10-year, 15-year growth targets are indescribable figures. In 15-20 years, a change much more powerful than all the changes in human civilization to date will take place. When this era is completed, humanity will be divided into old humanity and new humanity. When this era is completed, nations are unfortunately at risk of being divided into dominant nations and slave nations. If Turkey misses this train, if it cannot catch this train, the distance between us and Western civilizations will turn into an abyss. The income-expenditure gap between us will exceed 10 times.

We have to develop by leaping and implement our national industry strategy. It is not possible for us to close this gap in any other way. Our country can no longer bear the fatigue, degeneration, and decay experienced; it is not bearing it. We need to bring our country to hope all together with a new, young, dynamic management that produces with reason and acts with reason. We, my dear friends, know the way to bring this beautiful nation to hope, to lift Turkey up again, and to catch up with the rapidly advancing world.

"I HAVE NEVER, BY GOD, SEEN THE CONSCIENCE OF THIS NATION BE PROVEN WRONG"

Our plan, our program is ready. We are ready to take over the trust, to serve our 86 million people, our nation. We know and see this. Our nation is silently and calmly recording all the mistakes made in its memory. It is noting down who did what.

Our nation is waiting for the day it will have the final say. If there are some people's objections to seats and judicial plots, I have the conscience of our people, whom I believe in the most, and their memory, which is stronger than they can imagine. I have never, by God, seen the memory of this nation be mistaken, its conscience be proven wrong until today. I know and believe that our nation will show that it is the true owner of sovereignty and will remove all obstacles before it with its strong will."

News Source: 12punto