CHP's Esenyurt vigil continues... Call for resistance from CHP leader Özel

CHP's protests in Esenyurt continue. CHP leader Özgür Özel announced in his statement that they will continue their vigil in Esenyurt as long as Ahmet Özer remains in custody.

Stating that the government, under the instruction of AKP President Erdoğan, has occupied the Esenyurt Municipality, which it could not win, Özel said, "We are not under a trustee, we are under occupation."

Özel continued his remarks as follows:

"We are on the 20th day of our democracy vigil. The CHP is not a party that will remain silent about a trustee being sent to its municipality, that will remain silent after reacting for a few days, that will let this be forgotten, or that will remain a spectator to the continuation of this process. We have decided to continue the resistance we have been carrying out in Esenyurt for 20 days until Ahmet Özer returns to his post.

I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to our Esenyurt organization, our Istanbul organization, and our municipal council members who have put up a great fight here in the first 20 days. This occupation must be ended as soon as possible. Until Ahmet Özer returns to duty, the deputy mayor should be elected from among the municipal council members.

WE WILL BE AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE VIGIL IN ESENYURT

Every day, our provincial and district administrators will be at the forefront of the vigil in Esenyurt. On days when they are not present, writers, artists, and journalists who show great solidarity will be welcomed and hosted in our municipal council chamber. We will host the administrators and provincial chairs of other political parties who show solidarity and plan to visit here in our municipal council chamber.

We will organize neighborhood meetings in Esenyurt, which has 43 neighborhoods, to complete the promises Ahmet Özer made to those neighborhoods and finish the incomplete work. We will continue to explain the services that are being disrupted in Esenyurt, neighborhood by neighborhood. I have bad news for the AK Party and the MHP from here. We were elected with 51 percent of the vote, but according to public opinion polls, 80 percent of the people of Esenyurt find the arrest of Ahmet Özer to be wrong. This trustee decision has been rejected by the conscience of the nation.

You are also torturing the tradespeople. Remove these barricades, open the Esenyurt square to the public. Our administrators have always been careful to take steps that avoid any minor intervention against our police officers and that do not humiliate them in front of their families, against those who want to pit the police officers here—who have families—against CHP deputies. We thank our party members who did not fall for this game. Whoever does not believe this, our Esenyurt Police Chief is here. Have we had the slightest bit of mistreatment or disrespect toward the police? We are once again complaining to the police about the mentality that portrays the CHP as criminal and confrontational.

They raided the home of Ahmet Özer, a true patriot and a family man, in the middle of the night. He answered all the questions asked of him, but they arrested him on completely baseless grounds. His lawyers wrote a 40-page objection petition. However, they rejected it in 40 minutes, in which it was impossible to read it.

You cannot declare Ahmet Özer, to whom Erdoğan sends holiday greetings every year, whom they called to the constitutional commission in 2012 and listened to for 3 hours, and whom Süleyman Soylu invited to workshops, a criminal. You sought advice from Ahmet Özer for years. Therefore, a criminal or a terrorist cannot come out of Ahmet Özer, whom they invited to all their events, but the CHP will not let this matter go until the end."

News Source: 12punto