BREAKING NEWS... Özgür Özel addresses Erdoğan from Saraçhane: 'He got off the democracy train and joined the ranks of the coup plotters'

The university diploma of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor and CHP presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu had been revoked. Following the revocation of his diploma, a detention order was issued for him this morning. An investigation has also been launched against İmamoğlu regarding the 'city consensus' (kent uzlaşı). This decision has been met with great public outcry, drawing reactions from all segments of society. 

CHP leader Özgür Özel made statements in front of the Saraçhane building.

Here are the highlights from Özel's remarks:

They attacked the will of Istanbul with shameful treatment, jumping over walls before waiting for doors to be opened, and destroying everything in their path, treating our municipalities' employees, bureaucrats, scientists, and business people as if they were criminals when they were summoned. What has been done is a coup.

It is an attempted coup.

Weeks ago, at a group meeting, I explained that a coup mechanism was in operation. I explained that this was being carried out by an apparatus sent back to Istanbul to supposedly distribute justice from a political office. The current Chief Public Prosecutor of Istanbul previously traveled as a mobile guillotine of justice, as you all know—I will not repeat it—to nearly 20 political trials, ensuring that the decisions dictated to him were handed down by the courts.

Against Erdoğan, who pits the state against the nation, this nation will win once again. 

He was the world's most mobile judge. The most traveled judge. Then he was rewarded and went to a political post. In Erdoğan's own words, ministers used to be political, and their deputies and undersecretaries were technical. In this new system, he said ministers are technical and their deputies are political. While judges and prosecutors cannot return to duty once they enter politics or become parliamentary candidates because their political views are known, the person who manages the country, the chairman of a party, sent this person back here, saying, 'I need you in Istanbul,' after appointing him to a political post. The former mobile guillotine has become the Chief Public Prosecutor here. Since October 9, he has been trying to murder justice, attacking the entire opposition, especially our party, and treating those who report on these issues as criminals, treating those who tweet as criminals, treating those who 'like' posts as criminals, summoning them for testimony, throwing them in jail, and trying to intimidate and wear us down.

The reason he is doing this is that the March 31 elections have not been digested by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He has not received the message given by the nation. He could not accept defeat. He was supposedly invincible. He was deriving all his legitimacy from the ballot box. Every ballot box was absolving and clearing what he had done before. It was opening space for what he would do next.

On March 31, for the first time since his party was founded, he lost and became the second party, and he lost Istanbul—the Istanbul he said 'whoever loses Istanbul loses Turkey' and 'whoever wins Istanbul wins Turkey'—to Ekrem İmamoğlu for the third time.

Ekrem İmamoğlu defeated him four times in a row, including Beylikdüzü. He never lost to him. He, who saw himself as invincible, was now a loser that night. The Republican People's Party was the first party after 47 years, and he had someone in front of him whom he could not defeat in four rounds, and he had won Istanbul.

That is why he wakes up to his own voice every night. Whoever wins Istanbul wins Turkey. Whoever loses Istanbul loses Turkey.

THEY WERE GOING TO LOSE TURKEY 

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who lost Istanbul, was going to lose Turkey. Ekrem İmamoğlu, who won Istanbul, was going to win Turkey. This is that state of mind, this is that psychology, this is that indigestion. It is a disrespect, a lack of regard, and a refusal to recognize the decision of the nation to which he owes everything and every position he has reached; after all, he had boarded the democracy train as far as it suited him, and he was going to get off at the station that suited him.

'HE JOINED THE RANKS OF THE COUP PLOTTERS'

He got off the democracy train and joined the ranks of the coup plotters at that station. At the station where Mr. Tayyip got off, there are the July 15 coup plotters. At the station where Mr. Tayyip got off, there is Kenan Evren.

At the station where Mr. Tayyip got off, there is everyone in the history of the Republic of Turkey who has attempted a coup, whether they succeeded or not. Therefore, his choice has once again been to pit the state against the nation.

This nation, this people, loves and respects its state; they go to the military when called, they pay their taxes, they give their children as martyrs, but if the state stands against the nation, if the state competes with the nation, the nation wins. Just as this nation's wisdom—which previously chose a civilian candidate instead of the one Kenan Evren pointed to when he told the people 'pass over this person and choose that one'—protected the ballot box and those chosen by it against that army of fanatics opposing democracy on July 15, and just as the nation won on March 31 even when the state was pitted against us—with governors acting as provincial chairs, district governors as district chairs, the Anadolu Agency as the People's Alliance agency, and TRT as the AK Party's television—this nation will win again against Erdoğan, who has pitted the state against the nation this time.

They know that all their gains—the call to prayer freely recited from their mosques, the waving red-and-white flag, the crescent-and-star flag, all their freedoms, the title deeds in their hands, their diplomas, and their bank account books—are under the guarantee of the Republic and the ballot box it created. If you suspend the constitution, and if you have issued a diploma to someone who applied 35 years ago with a newspaper advertisement, who applied along with hundreds of others who were there before and after him, and if you examined his documents and made him retake all but two courses and issued him a diploma, that university also graduates doctors.

The university that issued that diploma, which has been used for 31 years to entrust the lives of the people by saying 'you can perform surgery,' canceled the diploma upon an instruction—or rather, due to the double harassment of that apparatus—and in doing so, it actually canceled the rule of law and legal security in the Republic of Turkey last night. With this logic, no one's title deed, no one's stock certificate, government bond, or bank book has any guarantee; it is the same logic. What is the reason for someone canceling a diploma after 35 years? What is that reason? Yesterday, the diplomas of 28 people were canceled in one go. Ekrem İmamoğlu is my comrade, I am setting him aside. What is the sin of the other 27? It is having been in the same class 35 years ago with the person who will govern the country in 2025, or at the latest 2026.

'A POLITICIAN WHOSE WRIST MR. TAYYIP CANNOT BEND'

The crime of Ekrem İmamoğlu is being a classmate from 35 years ago of a politician whose wrist Mr. Tayyip cannot bend.

Is that possible? If you studied in the same school as him, I will cancel his diploma so he cannot run in the election because I cannot defeat him. The innocent suffer along with the guilty. Ekrem's friends suffer along with him. The greatest value this state has given this nation is the freedom to choose. Tayyip Erdoğan is interfering with the freedom to choose. It is not Ekrem İmamoğlu's freedom to be a candidate that is being taken away; it is this nation's freedom to elect the president they want that is being taken away. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the 16 opposition parties—in short, everyone in Turkish politics except the People's Alliance—for the solidarity they have shown, the social media posts they have made, the phone calls they have made to me and Mayor Ekrem, and their visits here since last night.

And I thank the young people who, while everyone else was cowering and silent, stood up with the 'fear not' spirit of the National Anthem, and who came all the way here from Istanbul University, listening to neither barricades nor anything else. Of course, I thank our organization and all the very valuable members of all political parties.

'WE WILL PROTECT THE IMM' 

Until the moment Mayor Ekrem appears before the judge, I will be right by his side. We will protect the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality here, which has been entrusted to Mayor Ekrem and which Mayor Ekrem has entrusted to all of us. We are here, and we are not going anywhere.

The Left Party visited most recently. Mr. Musavvat Dervişoğlu is on his way, thank you. We will also accept solidarity visits here. I am in Saraçhane to contribute to, stand with, and fight alongside a mayor and a municipal council that protect the people's trust to the very end, and to support the will of Istanbul. We are in Saraçhane. To those asking where we should be, we say: come to Saraçhane. 

''THERE IS A MISTAKE WHERE THEY WROTE 'CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION LEADER'''

(Regarding the 'criminal organization leader' accusation directed at İmamoğlu) There is a typo where they wrote 'criminal organization leader.' They wrote Ekrem İmamoğlu instead of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

(Regarding calls for resignation from parliament) We have expressed our views on the issue of resigning from parliament before. Since the structure we are facing is not a mature, ethical structure, if you were to resign from parliament today, those who remain would gain the opportunity to change the constitution without a referendum with even half of those seats. If resigning from parliament would bring about an early election, we would have resigned 6 months ago. As for the boycott issue, if we maintain a strong opposition that will win a parliamentary majority, we will change the president anyway. We must first try to protect the trust we received from the nation. We can discuss these proposals at length later. 

News Source: 12punto