Breaking News: Ekrem İmamoğlu speaks in İzmir: He took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves on stage!

In the CHP, which has initiated the process of determining its presidential candidate, all eyes are on the primary election scheduled for March 23. Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is preparing to enter the primary as the sole candidate, is holding the first program of his election campaign in İzmir.

İzmir is a special city. It is the city of brave beginnings and beautiful finales. It is the city of the first bullet and the final victory. I am filled with the excitement and happiness of being in İzmir. https://t.co/Qz48N0WRBy

— Ekrem İmamoğlu (@ekrem_imamoglu) March 8, 2025

As he took the stage, İmamoğlu responded to the slogans chanted by the audience by taking off his jacket, rolling up his sleeves, and asking, "Are we ready for power?" The hall erupted in applause.

Highlights from İmamoğlu's speech are as follows:

Today, we are taking the first step of a new journey together. To succeed, one must first set out. One must get on the road. We cannot change anything by standing still or complaining. We will stand up, we will walk toward our goal. And by growing in waves, we will succeed together.

"THIS NATION WILL NEVER ACCEPT CAPTIVITY"

We will succeed together. My dear friends, our goal is clear. We are not just seeking to win an election, but to regain our unity and brotherhood as a nation. We are seeking to be of one heart as a nation in joy, grief, pain, and happiness.

We will save this country from a handful of people who try to poison our common pains and happiness with partisanship and who struggle to stay in power by dividing our nation. They want to condemn us to an unequal and unjust order.

But would this nation accept captivity? This nation will never accept captivity. This nation will never accept inequality or injustice.

Dear residents of İzmir, my dear friends, this beautiful republic founded by our Great Leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk equalized us all and set a goal before us: to rise above the level of contemporary civilization.

Rising above the level of contemporary civilization means being equal not only before the law but in every field of life. It means everyone being equal in accessing opportunities and in the exercise of rights and freedoms.

Rising above the level of contemporary civilization means ensuring justice in income distribution as much as in the courts.

Rising above the level of contemporary civilization means being a pioneer in science, technology, and production. The Republican People's Party (CHP), with the inspiration and directive it received from Atatürk, has always walked in the direction of these goals.

That is why the will of the Republican People's Party—the party I am a proud child of and where I serve you—is present in the establishment of a national economy, the provision of transportation infrastructure, and in the first factories, banks, and economic enterprises opened.

"ARE WE READY TO CHALLENGE ON MARCH 23?"

My dear friends, the will of the Republican People's Party is present in every step our country has taken on the path of the republic, democracy, the rule of law, secularism, and the social state.

We are all experiencing how much the principles I mentioned—republic, democracy, the rule of law, and secularism—are in trouble today. On March 23, the Republican People's Party will once again demonstrate its strength and will.

Our party's presidential candidate will be determined by you, by the votes of the members themselves. Do you know what this is called?

This is called a democratic revolution, a democratic revolution. You are making a revolution. You are making history. This is a challenge. It is a challenge. Are we ready to challenge on March 23?

My dear friends, the Republican People's Party is challenging politics shaped by the will of single men and narrow cadres. We are republicans. Look, I say it with full heart. We are republicans.

We are democrats. According to our understanding, just as citizens are the owners of the country, my dear friends, members are the owners of the parties.

Whatever they say, that is what happens. We are not like those who see themselves as the owners of the state and expect obedience from the state. According to our understanding, the nation is the master of the state. The nation is great. The nation is great.

"AN ADMINISTRATOR MUST KNOW THEIR LIMITS"

Administrators must know their limits before the citizens. My dear friends, the state, as I said just now, serves its nation. It extends its compassionate hand to its nation.

It protects its nation. It shows its smiling face to its nation. The homeland, the homeland and the nation are sacred to all of us.

The administrators who run the state do not have a stern face, they do not frighten their citizens, they do not shake their fingers at their citizens, they do not intimidate their citizens.

Therefore, administrators must know their limits before the citizens. On March 23, we will spread this belief and this self-confidence to the entire country.

In the primary election we will hold, we will show the government what it fears most—do you know what the government is afraid of, my dear friends? It is afraid of the ballot box, the ballot box. What will we do? We will show them what the government fears most: the ballot box on March 23. The ballot box. Since the proclamation of the Republic, we will remember that in this country, it is not the elected who are supreme, but the electors. Everyone will see and understand that the seal is not with those who think they are sultans, but with the nation, with the nation. It is with the nation.

Therefore, my dear fellow travelers, my valuable comrades, every vote you cast in the primary will show the value of democracy and national will, and it will make those who run away from the ballot box tremble, tremble violently.

Let me take off this tie. Together, we will roll up our sleeves, we will take off our jackets, and we will give the nation's rights back to the nation.

The nation is greater than everyone. From that day on, it will not be friends, acquaintances, or relatives, but the children of the nation who will determine the path of this country according to the common interests of the nation. Are we ready to get rid of the scourge of partisanship?

I learned yesterday that they have seized the assets and bank accounts of many people, some of whom are my fellow travelers, some I know, and some I do not. 

There are some among them I don't even know, but I suppose they burned them too because they greeted me or touched me while passing by.

Every day they invent a new attack against me and the friends around me. I am not afraid of any of these, and I will not be.

'YOU WILL EXPERIENCE THE FIFTH DEFEAT AND GO HOME'

I am standing right in front of you with my nation. Stop taking side roads. Stop blocking the nation's bank accounts and closing their shops. Let's go to the nation. What do you want from our municipalities? What is this 'fool' case? The nation is laughing. The prosecutor threat case, the expert witness case, and on top of that, the diploma case that you don't even have.

- We are laughing, but the matter is serious. This person, who is trying to have my diploma canceled 35 years later, will seize your 50-year-old title deeds tomorrow just like my diploma. Today it is me, tomorrow it is all of you.

- You want to enter the election without Ekrem İmamoğlu. You are afraid, aren't you? He is afraid.

- You will experience the fifth defeat and you will go home.

- As if something will happen to one Ekrem. There are millions of Ekrems in this country who do not want you.

- You will receive a democratic slap the likes of which you have never seen in history. That ballot box will come, and the nation will send you home. If you have the courage, face us.

- Everything will be very beautiful."