Özgür Özel protests Rıza Akpolat's detention: 'Turning your back on the nation is wrong!'

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel and CHP mayors arrived at Beşiktaş Municipality to protest the detention of Beşiktaş Mayor Rıza Akpolat.

Özel made statements there.

Highlights from Özel's speech are as follows:

"We see the contradiction of those who, after gaining power from the nation and reaching a certain position, turn their backs on the nation. Yet, there is only one sovereignty we know, and that belongs to the nation. Those who think the power they received from the nation is their own are making a mistake.

The public was pleased with him, and he was pleased with Beşiktaş. This mutual satisfaction brought Mayor Rıza a Turkish record.

If all 31 municipal council members in a district were given to one party, the decision there is absolute. Beşiktaş said, 'I have thought it over and made my decision; you should not enter through this door.' Beşiktaş decided who it would receive service from.

Those who cannot enter through this door with the votes of the nation are trying to enter through the judiciary. Everyone needs to see this; in such a situation, attempting character assassination against CHP municipalities with judicial games is not the work of democracy. This is a sign of exhaustion. I believe there are AKP and MHP voters who see this.

They have started to suppress those they could not defeat in political competition through the judiciary. The mentality that brought us here is the mentality of helplessness, of not knowing the nation, and of those who turn their backs on the nation when the time comes.

In democracies, there is one sovereign, and that is the nation itself. Sovereignty belongs to the nation. Those who mistake the power they received from it for their own power are making a mistake and causing others to make mistakes."

"THEY CAME AT YOU WITH TANKS"

Those to whom you gave everything they asked for, those with whom you walked different paths to the same destination at the top of the state, one day came at you with the tanks you put under them. On the evening of July 15, everyone is a witness that we stood firmly against those who stood against the nation's choice with the power in their hands. It is clear that a chief public prosecutor, who was given not a tank but a vehicle, who was made to wear his robe, and who was given instructions, was brought to duty to stir up Turkey. This is of no benefit to anyone in this country. It will not bring peace or benefit to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan either. Those who boast about writing an indictment in 4 days could not write an indictment for Ahmet Özer in 75 days.

Each of our metropolitan mayors greeting you from the top of this bus is an architect of a great success story in their own cities. They have written history and continue to do so. I greet all my metropolitan mayors with respect; we are grateful to them and we are proud of them.

Because their concern is not to enrich their cronies, they are striving to satisfy their citizens. They are working to provide companionship to those left alone by the government.

In our party, there is no one who does not love their country and their nation.

''IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CHP AND MAYOR RIZA''

A person named İhsan Aktaş, who follows the tenders of all public institutions, is mentioned in the investigation. We turned and looked; he is in all the tenders. It is emerging in the interrogation today. There are tenders he could get and tenders he could not. But this person has no direct or close connection with the CHP and Mayor Rıza.

Erdoğan, remember this: those to whom you gave everything they asked for, those you patted on the back, those you walked with, one day came at you with the tanks you put under them. That day, as an opposition party, we opened the closed Parliament. And we said that until elections are held and our nation makes a different decision, we are the country's main opposition party. We said we stand behind the elected parliament and against the coup plotters. Trusting the nation, believing in the nation, and respecting its decision means standing by the elected ones even if you are the opposition on the day of a coup; we are such a party."

News Source: 12punto