Özgür Özel and Müsavat Dervişoğlu meet: 'This state of insecurity will not spare Erdoğan or Gürlek'

İYI Party Chairman Müsavat Dervişoğlu visited Özgür Özel at the Republican People's Party (CHP) Headquarters. Dervişoğlu met with Özgür Özel at the CHP Headquarters at 15:00.

Following the meeting, Dervişoğlu and Özel made statements to the press.

Özgür Özel made the following remarks in his statement:

Mr. Chairman, they called by phone yesterday. They expressed their assessment of the situation, conveyed their get-well wishes, and offered their support. They had also mentioned that they wanted to visit when they came to Ankara.

Today, they came to visit us at the beginning of our founding anniversary week in Ankara. I would like to thank Mr. Müsavat Dervişoğlu, both as the Chairman of the İYI Party and as someone with whom I have had a great relationship of solidarity, friendship, and a brotherly bond while serving in the same positions in Parliament in the past, for his kind visit. I leave the floor to him.

Müsavat Dervişoğlu's speech is as follows:

On the occasion of the Republican People's Party's founding anniversary, I congratulated them on this week during my visit. As you know, today is the anniversary of the Sivas Congress; it is the anniversary of the day when the Society for the Defense of Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia merged and those important decisions that formed the conditions for the War of Independence were taken. On this occasion, I congratulate them on that as well.

I also express my gratitude to the Chairman for his kind hospitality. As they have expressed, the relationship between the two of us is far above politics. Therefore, when any trouble occurs or when we are faced with an extraordinary situation regarding the country, we meet and talk on some occasion.

Today is one of those days. I wish I had the opportunity to make a legal assessment regarding the events that have taken place; however, it does not seem very possible to address what has happened on a legal basis under these conditions. Therefore, we are faced with the results of certain political decisions. All the discussions taking place are, in fact, of a nature that increases tension and polarization in Turkish politics. Consequently, this tension and polarization also have an effect that raises the temperature of politics.

In such situations, the duty of politicians should be to lower the rising tension. But we see and observe that the government is adding fuel to the fire and prefers to exploit this rising tension for political gain.

You are all witnessing it, and the public is already talking about it. When you watch it, you witness that all these events are not being handled on a legal basis, and the internal affairs of parties are being interfered with through court decisions. Therefore, accordingly, trying to design the internal structures of political parties with court decisions is an extremely wrong practice.

If there is indeed a deficiency or an inadequacy in the middle; if a fault, a misdemeanor, or even a crime has been committed, the courts must fulfill their responsibilities. But in this process, while there are decisions made by election boards in the past, and while there are decisions taken by the Supreme Election Council, the issuance of court decisions that could affect past actions and proceedings leads to a situation where courts are involved in politics and are paving the way for decisions to be made under tutelage. We find this extremely dangerous.

Furthermore, I want to emphasize that the government should first think about what it would cost if past election results were canceled by decisions of Civil Courts of First Instance. If election results and congress results are tampered with, it could lead to extremely dangerous consequences, such as courts claiming that the national will and free elections have lost their validity. This situation is as dangerous for the government as it is for our democracy.

The public is discussing the events and what happened, especially regarding the 2017 Referendum. If a Civil Court of First Instance makes a decision, the change of system in Turkey, and even the 2018 elections and 2023 elections that followed, could become a matter of debate. I believe that all of this should not happen in Turkey.

I am content for now to point out the danger of such interventions, which are implemented through the pressure and wrong practices of the government. But if the need arises to show resistance to this, I state clearly and plainly that neither I personally nor the İYI Party will refrain from doing so.

Now, I would like to touch upon how important the Republican People's Party is for Turkey here. Because, in the final analysis, even if we call it the main opposition party, it is Turkey's second party. It is represented with great potential in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

Therefore, for Turkey's future, just like today, there is a need for the unity, integrity, and togetherness of the Republican People's Party within its own community.

In other words, a divided or internally disrupted Republican People's Party is of no use to anyone. Therefore, I am of the opinion that the Republican People's Party will not fall into this trap set for it.

I am of the opinion that it cannot be made to fall. Because I wholeheartedly believe that the political heritage and experience of the Republican People's Party will not allow this. I also believe that it possesses the experience to overcome all the problems it faces with patience and common sense. What is important for all of us here is Turkey. What is important for all of us is democracy. What is important for all of us is law, justice, and equality. I am also of the opinion that even those who think differently on this matter, if a decision needs to be made regarding the future of Turkey, their side is clear.

Therefore, I state here that political strategies that try to feed on this, primarily those that try to feed on this, will fail, and I emphasize that the duty to lower this rising tension lies not with the opposition, but with the government, and I hope that those who do not refrain from taking steps that could lead to Turkey moving away from democracy will come to their senses. The Republican People's Party is one of the important bastions of democracy. And the owners of that bastion are on the ramparts of that bastion. Therefore, I would like to express that I see benefit in underlining that the dreams of those who attempt to feed on this with political opportunism will also fall through in time. My dear Chairman, I have gone on a bit long. I congratulate you again on your founding anniversary and founding week. I know that the Republican People's Party will observe this week with a style befitting itself. I would like to express that you should know that we are always ready if we need to come together again.

Following their statements, Özel and Dervişoğlu answered questions from the press

Journalist:

My question will be for both chairmen, but Mr. Müsavat touched upon 2017 a bit. Regarding this issue, there were comments from the AK Party front, and Şamil Tayyar made a statement about the discussion of the Civil Courts. He said, "If a civil court in the judiciary comes out and says that unstamped ballots were counted as valid in violation of the law, there is nothing we can do." How do you evaluate this?

Özgür Özel:

This assessment is an assessment that reaches a conclusion that anyone with a little bit of reasoning ability, a little bit of knowledge of law, and knowledge of what the legal system and election law are, can healthily reach. We receive a large number of suggestions from our party members via email. They say, "There are countless civil courts in Turkey. Let each of us apply to each of them. One of them could cancel the referendum due to the irregularities in the referendum." "Let us submit a petition to all civil courts for all the elections that the AK Party has won, and let us make statements that could create controversy regarding this election. If this business is done by declaration years later, even the regime change in Turkey could be reversed." Mr. Tayyar has also made an assessment in this direction.

We see the cancellation of this election by a civil court, after the district election that the Republican People's Party left behind and this decision which was finalized after objections were also resolved by the Supreme Election Council, as an extremely unhealthy decision that disregards election law, suspends election law in Turkey, and turns all civil courts in Turkey into an appellate court for the Supreme Election Council.

In fact, a development is taking place today, let's state that. An expected development is taking place. The court that made the decision in Istanbul is notifying the district election boards in Istanbul that it has stopped the ongoing calendar of the Republican People's Party. Upon this, all neighborhood elections were ending this weekend. Next weekend, 14 district elections were to be finished, and our calendar regarding the province was to be completed within 2 weeks, within less than a month. That is exactly why they acted a few days before, just like they acted on March 19, and they are notifying the district election boards of the decision they made. The district election boards are saying, as expected, "If the congress calendar has stopped, our execution of this calendar depends on a new decision by the Supreme Election Council."

We are also preparing to submit our objection petitions to the Supreme Election Council for all these districts. In addition, after the response to our objection to the court regarding the decision made by the Civil Court of First Instance against us, our application to the Supreme Election Council regarding this state of complete illegality is also prepared at the stage of applying to the appellate court.

The Supreme Election Council's previous assessments, made by various party representatives there and by the members of the Supreme Election Council, not on a case-by-case basis but in a broad tense, are known to all of us. Election law is the law of objections. It ends with the resolution of objections. Even the Constitutional Court is not a court where objections can be made against YSK decisions. Now, before the Supreme Election Council, will Turkey's election law be turned upside down with this conspiracy attempt established against the Republican People's Party, which is the first party of Turkey, which the government cannot bend the wrist of, which was defeated in the last local elections, and which is the first party in every poll it commissions, by disregarding all these established decisions, all these decisions in the Constitution, in the YSK's founding law, and in Turkey's election laws, and trying to define a new order of chaos? Will all decisions become controversial or not? We will see that with the decision that the esteemed members of the Supreme Election Council will make. We have all made this assessment separately, all lawyers and all politicians who know this subject very well. The subject they agree on is that we believe the YSK will protect and look after Turkey's election law and will not make a decision that would disregard itself or leave itself as null and void in such a chaotic period. Our assessments are in this direction.

Müsavat Dervişoğlu:

I agree with these views exactly, I agree with these views exactly. Election law is formal. If, through this, past referendums, past elections, past political party congresses become a matter of debate with the decisions of civil courts, as I have stated, what is being debated is essentially the national will. It is democracy. And a route would be arranged that could lead to the questioning of many works and proceedings carried out until now. That is why I said that the responsibility here actually falls more on the government than on the opposition parties. But remember some of the trials in past periods. These also contained an infrastructure designed to judge the government in the next calendar. It is a matter that Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and those who advise him in the legal field need to be very careful about. As the Chairman stated, a chaotic environment will be created accordingly, and usually, chaos collapses on the heads of those who pave the way for chaos.

Journalist:

After the removal of the Istanbul Provincial Administration from office, some developments also took place. The 42nd Civil Court, which is looking at the congress case in Ankara, requested the relevant documents from the 45th Civil Court of First Instance in Istanbul. We also learned today that the Constitutional Court will put the application of the Ankara 26th Criminal Court of First Instance regarding the uncertainty of "whether the case will be heard in a high criminal court or a criminal court of first instance" on its agenda on September 10. You were always making a "process-oriented, not result-oriented" case assessment regarding the case to be heard on September 15. Has there been a change in this assessment of yours after these developments?

Özgür Özel:

The Constitutional Court is taking it onto its agenda on the 11th. It will take some time for it to reach a decision. My assessment is this; that is, politics in Turkey can make all kinds of interventions through the law. However, I think that if the judge in Ankara, where the court is being held, continues the matter as he has carried it to this day, no decision will come out on the 15th, he will take steps towards the decisions he has made before, and the case will proceed in that way.

And if someone designed this matter to get a result from it, this is a complete disaster, a complete tragedy. I would not advise anyone to trigger this chaotic process. If there is such an intervention by politics. It is not possible for legal professionals who have been left alone with the law and their conscience to make such decisions. But in Istanbul, as we evaluated among ourselves a little while ago, someone who was sent from a political position like Deputy Minister in Ankara to the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office for operational purposes, after finding a civil court that would sign this shame after being tried nine times and on the tenth, and after opening a new case, organizing it, and merging it in a way that is perhaps not seen in our legal history as an indictment, saying "I am the owner of this business," Akın Gürlek is the "fool of praise" of the process. He is the fool of Tayyip Erdoğan's "praise."

Attempting such a task that will go down in the political history of the Republic of Turkey with such a black mark is neither courage, nor greatness, nor is it a step taken for the good of Turkey's future process. When looking at all the files he has handled, making everything controversial, when the government changes, which we want to be the guarantor of the law, but such a government comes that neither an AK Party member's property security remains, nor anyone's position security remains, nor the security of the certificates of election remains, nor the security of the title deeds remains. Akın Gürlek will be left under this state of insecurity, and so will Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. That is why I say this to them: We are where we are. We are here with the courage of 100 years ago. We know whose seat we are sitting in and why we are sitting there. Let them not refrain from what they know. Thank you.

News Source: 12punto