Yerlikaya targets Özel, CHP response is swift

Republican People's Party (CHP) Group Deputy Chairman Murat Emir reacted to Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya's response on social media following CHP Chairman Özgür Özel's criticism of the minister during a television program. In a statement on his social media account, Emir alleged that Yerlikaya is targeting the country's main opposition party and using security forces for political purposes.

Emir's statement on his social media account is as follows:

'He is the Minister of Interior... But look at what he is busy with. He is targeting the country's main opposition party, the party that came in first in the last elections. He surrounds our provincial building, deploying five thousand police officers to the streets to protect his trustees and trolls. He has gas sprayed on members of parliament. He acts as a battering ram for those complicit in coup attempts, relying on tyranny instead of the law.'

'THEY PLANNED A COUP, NOT SECURITY'

'If they had not directed all the state's resources and intellect toward stopping the CHP's march to power with a coup-like attempt, perhaps the growth of terrorist organizations in digital environments—which paved the way for the martyrdom of our two heroic police officers in İzmir on the same day—could have been noticed. But they planned a coup, not security. They thought of the survival of their power, not the safety of the public.'

'THEY ARE TRYING TO COVER UP THEIR FAULTS'

'They have turned the police, the judges, and the governors into apparatuses of a party-state. Then, they try to cover up their faults with responses that seem like they were pulled from a farce. But it is in vain. The truth is clear: This Minister is on the side of a coup, not security; on the side of the government's tyranny, not the public's peace.'

WHAT HAPPENED?

Özgür Özel had reacted to Yerlikaya during a live broadcast due to the trustee appointed to the Istanbul Provincial Presidency and the police barricades in front of the provincial building. Özel stated, "I will not accept the political execution carried out against my party. The man called Ali Yerlikaya is like mercury. If Erdoğan stumbles, these are the first ones to kick him."

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, referring to Özel without naming him, used the phrase "incompetent ambitious person" and, citing Rumi, said, "My silence is from my nobility. Of course, I have an answer for every word."

News Source: 12punto