DEM Party Co-Chair Tülay Hatimoğulları responds to Bahçeli: 'The DEM Party is more "of Turkey" than you are!'

Tülay Hatimoğulları, Co-Chair of the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), made assessments regarding the current agenda at her party's group meeting.

Highlights from Hatimoğulları's speech are as follows:

"The struggle for global hegemony is intensifying. These tensions have turned into hot conflicts in many places. The crisis of the global capitalist system is deepening with each passing day. There are alliances and new polarizations being formed to overcome this crisis. Trade wars, energy rights, geopolitical competition, and tensions over artificial intelligence are increasing. We are witnessing the hottest period since the Cold War.

At the center of this chaos is the Middle East, where historical ruptures are taking place. The fractures caused by endless conflicts and wars are constantly reshuffling the deck everywhere. An attempt is being made to replace the disorder in the Middle East with a new order.

Unfortunately, the peoples of the region are once again paying the heaviest price for this war. Tens of thousands of people are taking the path of migration due to the ongoing clashes from Aleppo to Tel Rifaat.

I call upon international powers: Establishing humanitarian corridors is everyone's responsibility. Meanwhile, before the ink on the peace treaty between Israel and Lebanon had even dried, the Syrian front began to boil. Groups such as Al-Nusra and HTS, which are recognized as terrorist organizations all over the world, are taking advantage of the conditions that allow the Syrian National Army to advance.

These groups, which have entered Aleppo, one of Syria's major cities, are trying to rule by force in neighborhoods where various ethnic and religious communities live. Gang attacks on Tel Rifaat also continue. We have been watching this situation since 2011, and now we are witnessing new scenes of this film.

'ABANDON YOUR NEO-OTTOMANIST DREAMS'

I want to address the state's wisdom and the executive branch from here. You became part of a great destruction by getting involved in the 2011 Syrian war. Do not chase after new adventures. Abandon your Neo-Ottomanist dreams. As long as you act with this anger, you will drag the country into a worse catastrophe. Every spread of violence in the Middle East is a disaster for both Turkey and the region. Come, let us implement the principle of peace at home, peace in the region.

'THE REMEDY IS PEACE'

As the DEM Party, we know which powers are inciting the chaos in the region, and who wants to gain what from whom; we know it all. We know very well what is happening in the Middle East. Our struggle is in favor of a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question. We are in favor of people being able to make a living on the lands where they were born and building a common life together with all our differences. While the world is under the threat of nuclear war, the remedy is peace. Peace is the most important security method for all borders. We have expressed this message every time we have taken the podium since the day the Syrian war began in 2011.

CRITICISM OF THE ECONOMY

Danger bells are ringing for the Turkish economy. It has entered a recession. Alarm bells for the Turkish economy are now ringing as loudly as possible. Can you imagine, you go to the bazaar or the market and peppers are 120 TL, tomatoes are 80 TL... Oh government, you who say we have sent the economy soaring, are you aware of the fruit and vegetable prices? Are you aware of how hungry and miserable the citizens are? Do you not feel ashamed to give the message 'we will fix this economy' as if someone else were the one who managed this economy so poorly?

The DEM Party is brewing with the troubles of 85 million citizens. The DEM Party is fighting against hunger and poverty. It is fighting so that everyone can find work and bread. It is fighting so that children are not abused or murdered, and women are not murdered by men.

RESPONSE TO BAHÇELİ: WHERE DO YOU STAND?

Recalling that MHP Chairman Devlet Bahçeli asked the question "Where is the DEM Party?", Hatimoğulları said:

"First of all, abandon the language of threats. Stop threatening us. Dialogue cannot be established by threatening. And for those who want to hear, we repeat: The DEM Party is democracy, it is the solution; the DEM Party is against denial in common citizenship; the DEM Party defends a 'Turkish' identity where all different peoples and faiths—with our Kurdishness, our Turkishness, our Arabness, our Armenianness—can live together despite our differences. The DEM Party is more 'of Turkey' than you are. Where do you stand in this peace process? Peace is not something you can use as a tool whenever you feel like it."

News Source: 12punto