Buğra Gökce gets married: Statement from Özgür Özel after the wedding at Silivri Prison

Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Özgür Özel served as a witness for the wedding of IPA President Buğra Gökce, who tied the knot with Filiz Kahveci while being held in Silivri Prison.

Speaking outside Silivri Prison, CHP leader Özel delivered significant messages.

Highlights from Özel's statements are as follows:

"We came here for a very auspicious occasion at its core. But we were forced to hold this auspicious occasion in this ominous place alongside our friends who are being subjected to the law of the enemy.

Therefore, let me first say this. While presenting the marriage certificate inside, I concluded my words to Buğra and Filiz by emphasizing our belief that we will repeat this ceremony, that millions of hearts are here today, and that we will repeat this with a very crowded, very joyful ceremony. Let me express that here as well.

Last night, ten minutes to midnight, we ended the day with an answer that saddened us all deeply: no permission for a family member, no permission for the Chairman, no permission for the deputies. Then they said they would allow visits.

Whatever mind prevailed this morning around 7:30-8:00, whoever was the cause, we are grateful even for this much.

At least a conscientious voice within the AK Party must have gone and said something. 'Let's allow the family. Let the Chairman be the wedding witness,' was reported as of 9:00 this morning.

Whoever contributed to this part, despite everything, despite all our anger and reaction to the entire process, we thank the person or persons who made this possible.

At least these mothers, these fathers, these siblings were able to witness this part of the event. We were witnesses along with our Ankara Deputy Umut Akdağ.

Of course, the photos will be released on Friday with great acceleration. We took a photo in front of the prison without Buğra. The family certificate in the bride's hand was presented at Silivri Prison. May they drown in the tears on the handkerchief in the hand holding that certificate, I pray.

Whoever the mind is that applies this law of the enemy to us. Once again, thanks to the conscience that intervened this morning to show understanding to the family, but we continue to show our greatest reactions to this dirty and evil mind that applies this law of the enemy.

They cannot take us over here. They will drown in their cruelty, in the tears of the brides and the mothers inside, in the tears of the bride. They will drown in the tears of the children.

Because the moral superiority is with us, brother. The conscientious superiority is with us. That is why the moral superiority is with us, the psychological superiority is with us, and tonight in a difficult arena for the Republican People's Party like Esenler, on Saturday in a difficult arena like Düzce, just watch and see who has the energy of the majority.

If you are going to win, you must have psychological superiority, moral superiority, and the energy of the majority behind you. In 2002, the AKP achieved this by turning the victimization it suffered into the energy of the majority.

"İMAMOĞLU IS STANDING WITH 7 TIMES THE MORALE IN A 7-METER CELL"

Right now, Ekrem İmamoğlu, I visited him a little while ago, is standing in a 7-meter cell, 7 stories below ground, 7 stories above the sky, with great morale. Those who keep him inside are sitting in the palace, but they are 7 stories below ground, they are in that psychology.

Therefore, it is not the imprisonment of the body or the physique that matters, but the imprisonment of the conscience, falling into prison in consciences. We are outside in consciences. Let them try to keep us inside physically as much as they want. Of course, this cruelty will eventually come to an end, and our friends will come out with their heads held high, just as they entered.

Today I visited Kadriye Kasapoğlu. I said yesterday, 'You will drown in the tears of 12-year-old Çınar.' Today I witnessed Kadriye Hanım's tears but also her confidence in herself. Kadriye Hanım says this, we are telling all of Turkey: 'If,' she says, 'that phone had been a crime tool and I had the intention to hide and destroy the evidence, the crime tool, instead of giving it to IT years ago and saying, "Forward this to the switchboard, you keep the device," if I had thrown it into the sea, I would be with my son now,' she says.

They first took Kadriye Hanım, saying about the car she bought a year ago, which left İpsala 3 years ago, 'We cannot find the bribe money in Turkey. Did you smuggle it abroad with this car?' She said: 'I bought that car in December. What you are talking about was 2 or 3 years ago, the car was not mine.' She showed the day she bought it, the money movement in the MASAK report, and the receipt, saying this is the purchase money for this vehicle. 'Oh my God!' they said. They still requested an arrest. A conscientious judge released her, saying, 'How can there be an arrest for this?' This time, they used the phone as an excuse, brought it to another judge, and had her arrested. What is her crime? That my phone would be in this car. Could one of you bring it?

What is her crime? Her crime is that she forwarded the phone that Ekrem İmamoğlu used when he was the Mayor of Beylikdüzü, saying, 'Someone might call from Beylikdüzü, he became the Metropolitan Mayor, they shouldn't say he got arrogant and changed his phone,' and Kadriye Hanım, who said, 'Take this phone, forward it to the switchboard, you keep the device,' and look...

Look, it is registered as 'Beylikdüzü Mayoral Candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu' in my phone. He calls that number. The number is 0532 721 03 25. This phone number is one that we all have, that 2 million members of the Republican People's Party can see.

When they asked Ekrem İmamoğlu, the phone number is available, the line he used, his own phone, he was using two lines. The number he said after saying the number he had more in his family, with fewer people, and then saying 'Wait a minute, wait a minute,' and then saying 'I have one more number,' is this one in the interrogation report. They couldn't find this number. It is registered in all of us everywhere.

They found that device, the device that was told, 'You take it from IT, do the forwarding, and you keep the device, let it be off but forward it.' Did anything come out of it? A correspondence, a scribble, nothing, nothing at all.

There cannot be such a lack of conscience. It is not something that can happen, and I want to say this much from here: We all vouch for the innocence of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the innocence of Kadriye Hanım, the innocence of the Protection Chief Mustafa, the innocence of our mayors, and the innocence of our bureaucrat friends who are held here because of them, just to make it look like there is a criminal organization. Just as I witnessed this wedding here today, I vouch for the honesty, hard work, and integrity of these friends and I bear witness once again.

"GÖKCE'S MOTHER SETTLED IN THE GUESTHOUSE HERE"

I am telling everyone who values our word, we are facing a structure that deals with children, deals with women, deals with families, has taken a stick in its hand, look, look, it says, 'Behind him,' it says, 'Mr. Mustafa.' Well, what does close protection mean? What does the protection chief mean? There is a structure that deals with these friends. There is a structure that exiles everyone far from their mothers and fathers. My mother lives in İzmir. Now she has come to see her son every week during open visits, she settled in the guesthouse here, she is staying in the guesthouse. 500 km away.

They are scattering our friends from here, how will family visits happen? They are trying to break their resistance with this cruelty. Then they appear before them: 'I don't have a lawyer.' 'What do you need a lawyer for? You are not comfortable with the lawyer. Give a statement as I want. Reunite with your mother, reunite with your child, reunite with your spouse.' How will I give a statement? Accusing Ekrem İmamoğlu, Ekrem İmamoğlu started and set up a system. 'No,' they say, 'there isn't.' Look, the files before 2019, here is Mr. Nuri, the prosecutor is writing, they are sending the files of this company. 'Why so many?' 'We don't want anything before 2019.' That is, 'If there is corruption during the AK Party period, I am not interested.' he says. 'I need to find a crime for Ekrem İmamoğlu.' he says. I said it 100 times, I am not doing this either.

'I didn't say, "What will I do when the files before 2019, tender files come, I am not interested in that period," but he gave himself away. He is taking a statement, when a company name close to the AK Party is mentioned in the statement, 'Skip that.' An AK Party member's name is mentioned, 'Skip that.' From you, here, look, can there be such a statement? Were you ever pressured here not to enter the tender? 'Yes sir, it was done.' Who did it? 'In the previous period, during the AK Party period, the company that would receive it was determined in advance. We were told to withdraw from the tender.' 'Oh, leave that now.' he says. He even sends it that day, the next day again, 'You tell this side.' he says. He makes the person who expresses the tender he was forced not to enter during the AK Party period leave the report half-finished, doesn't let him sign it, and calls him again the next day. Look, they say to us, 'The pot calls the kettle black.' We don't say to him, 'Yours is blacker than mine.' We are clean, brother, we are clean. You cannot find any evidence. You yourselves say, 'A person knows the job from himself, you must have done it this way.' If we did it, find it then. He is trying to create a forced confessor. He gathers them, gathers them, whether it fits or not.

He turns to the men and says: 'Give a statement as we said, look,' he says, 'you are receiving money from such and such ministry. Do not betray the place where you eat bread, where you eat food, look! You are betraying the place where you eat bread by not testifying against Ekrem İmamoğlu for the state's, the ministry's tender.' he says. We are in such a situation. Really, really, we are very sad, very hurt, very angry. We are in a day where we are experiencing all these feelings at once. We experienced the tears of little children, the tears of mothers, and holding a wedding that we planned to be witnesses to under iron bars, all together. Until this morning, they said, 'Choose two people from among you for these people.' They told me, 'You cannot be a witness.' They told our Mayor, 'He will not read the wedding, he will send an official.' Even this was corrected this morning with a conscientious voice from the AK Party saying, 'This is shameful now, enough.' Friends. Whatever we say is empty. Whatever we say is empty. But Turkey needs peace, the Turkish economy needs trust, Turkey needs not fighting, Turkey needs to be governed in accordance with the law, and the opposition needs to perform its opposition duty under these conditions. They declared war on us. I said, 'We are at war.' We are behaving as one behaves in war. Now I am calling out to those who ended 50-year conflicts and started a peace process, a solution process, a process process: End this conflict, let's look at our work. Let all of Turkey look at its work, let's look ahead. As long as you apply the law of the enemy to us, we will continue to respond as a party, a structure that has been declared war on, responds in war.

RESPONSE TO ERDOĞAN REGARDING PEDRO SANCHEZ

Yesterday in Europe, he turned around and said those I thought were friends, and he is complaining to those who defend democracy in Turkey and show solidarity with us. Well, what happened? If these things hadn't happened, you would have continued to call them 'My friend.' Good relations would have continued, and we would have contributed. They are my friends too, they are your friends too. My relative, your counterpart. Why should relations be spoiled? You spoiled them. Give oil from the Turkish Petroleum Corporation to those who stand behind the coup. Criticize those who stand against the coup. Didn't I say, 'I am the vice president of the Socialist International. I will defend whatever is in Turkey's interest in these countries. Give us information too.' I said. I also stated this openly to the public. Such an understanding of opposition, 'Sir, do not complain about us abroad. Ask for help on July 15, let's travel abroad together, let's explain it together.' he says. We didn't go together, but we explained on every platform that it was a coup. In the headscarf crisis, go out, take refuge in the European Court of Human Rights, get a decision from there, punish Turkey. Form a delegation in the party closure case, tour Europe. When there is a coup against us, be silent. There is no such thing. You will give up the coup, we will be silent that day. Otherwise, in the whole world, there will be no one left in Turkey who hasn't heard. I will explain this to the Yörük tent on the mountain top. I will explain it to the Socialist International, I will explain it to the European Parliament, I will explain it to the whole world. When things go wrong there, 'CHP is spoiling Turkey-Europe relations.' You shouldn't have spoiled them. You shouldn't have spoiled them. Aren't you the one who made Filiz Hanım get married behind iron bars in this state? Aren't you the one who keeps the elected, three-time elected trusted person of Istanbul, the one Istanbul trusts, here, inside? Everyone gets what they deserve. If you do it to us, you will continue to find worse. Look, the energy in us, the belief in us, the determination to fight in us will not end. As you persecute, we will continue to fight. But if you are saying: 'Oh, it's a pity for Turkey, it's a pity for the economy.' You will stop pitying us too, brother. We are not saying: 'Acquit us.' We are saying, 'Try us fairly, try us without arrest.' We are saying, 'Try us without arrest, try us on TRT. Let the whole nation hear the real answers.' We are saying, throw us in jail in a trial process where Aunt Fitnat listening from Niğde is not convinced, let us lie in jail. We are defending an innocence that the AK Party member you trust the most in Trabzon, the one you trust the most in Rize, would say on TRT, 'Oh, there is nothing in this, there cannot be an arrest for this.' If you defend the opposite, publish it, let us be disgraced. Empty file. Completely a lie. An indictment that cannot be written. We are saying it this clearly. Challenge accepted!

Oh, there is nothing in this. There cannot be an arrest for this,' we are defending an innocence that he would say. If you defend the opposite, publish it, let us be disgraced. Empty file, completely a lie, an indictment that cannot be written. We are saying it this clearly. Challenge accepted! Challenge accepted! Let both the allegations and the answers be heard on TRT. If you don't have the courage for this, it means you don't trust your prosecutor as much as I trust Mayor Ekrem. Don't trust him anyway because they told him, 'Go, you will find it.' He is left here spinning his wheels. He can't find anything, he gets involved in crime, he forces people to commit crimes. False testimony is a crime, forcing it is also a crime.

(Question: Where is this process evolving? If we look at it in terms of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, is the municipality becoming unable to work? Is this what is wanted to be done? What is happening here, in this course of events?)

That is the purpose. By cutting the municipality's money, by seizing its appropriations, by trying to collect years of debts at once, and by throwing our very high-level bureaucrats inside, they are making the municipality unable to work. They are doing this by taking people like Mayor Ekrem, who knows municipalism very well, is a good manager, someone we can call a good coordination expert, and who manages this huge structure like clockwork. What do we trust? We trust that all of the Republican People's Party's staff are formed with merit. What do we trust? We trust in the existence of our friends who will look after these friends' places, but of course, creating a great fear. There will be no companies left to enter the tenders because they take those who enter. They take those who enter. They won't take, according to their calculations, for example, garbage won't be collected. There won't be a firm to pour asphalt because they won't enter the tender. They will say: 'Look, CHP couldn't do it.' Does this nation eat this? Does this nation eat this? It's something like that. If service is disrupted in Istanbul, the person responsible for the disruption is there. Hopefully, my mayor is here so that it is not disrupted. A deputy has been elected, they are working with all their might. We trust them, we believe in them, but let me say this much: In a place where Mayor Ekrem is at the head and everyone is at their job, even before the first year, in 8-9 months, there was a satisfaction rate of over 60%, a satisfaction rate reaching 68%, and satisfaction rates of over 70% in certain services. That is, the essence of what put Mayor Ekrem inside is the satisfaction with the mother card, satisfaction with the City Restaurant, satisfaction with the soup kitchen, satisfaction with the Welcome Baby package, satisfaction with protein support, free meat, milk support, satisfaction with the nutritional support put in the child's bag when going to school, put in the bags of poor students, and today what is actually being attacked is this. Those who see that this satisfaction is taking Mayor Ekrem to power are trying to stuff him into Silivri and make these services impossible to perform, but I am complaining about this to our people, our nation. There cannot be such bad intentions. This coup is being made to the young, married Istanbulite woman who shows the mother card to Mayor Ekrem with one arm holding her baby, and the other arm holding the bag, jumping in front of the bus in Sultangazi, because you are satisfied with the child's lunchbox and you are making a heart to Mayor Ekrem. This coup is being made to her.

(AKP Chairman and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan calling Özel the British Admirers Association)

Now Mr. Erdoğan, who is Sait Molla? Did I praise Sait Molla in the past? Did you? Did Numan Kurtulmuş? Who is Sait Molla, for example? Sait Molla is the founder of the British Admirers Association. Mr. Numan says; 'We have been on two separate paths with them for 150 years.' he says. 'They are going on one path, we are going on one path.' he says. On the paths described by Mr. Numan, at the beginning of that path, when it started, for example, there are the Young Ottomans. We are on that side. Following that, there are Namık Kemals. We are on that side. There are the Young Turks. We are on that side. Then, not the place it evolved into later, but with the determination to fight when it was founded, there is the Committee of Union and Progress. Following that, there are the Anatolian and Rumelian Defense of Rights Societies. Then there is the merger, there is the People's Party, there is the Republican People's Party. Now these are on our path. You cannot encounter Sait Molla on this path. But Sait Molla is their fellow traveler on the path they started. He founded the British Admirers Association. Now, for example, is he the one defending the sultan who caused the British occupation fleet to drop anchor in front of Istanbul, or am I? I am a follower of Fatih Sultan Mehmet. We are from the rise period, raised in Manisa, conquered Istanbul, founded Istanbul University in 1453, the year he conquered it. We are Fatih followers. If we are going to share those sultans, our side is that. Tayyip Bey defends Vahdettin, who did not resist the occupation and laid out the red carpet, and fled by boarding a British battleship. You encounter these on their path. I am a 1st Constitutionalist. I am a 2nd Constitutionalist. We are all like that. Tayyip Bey is on the side that closed the Chamber of Deputies, which we had opened, for 33 years. He defends that side. Now he has come and is comparing me to the British Admirers Association. He knows that association best. If we were in power, he would reopen this association as the association he is in solidarity with. Oh, and if there is a structure that is involved in these British plans, that structure knows itself. By the way, we know very well the role they gave to Tayyip Bey while the British were making calculations in Syria. That is why, I mean, I really would never do it in my life, I don't even laugh at the most provocative questions of the most oppositional friends. Don't take it personally that I laughed at your question. If we were to teleport ourselves to that period, to the British Admirers from Tayyip Bey's expression, Tayyip Bey would find himself at the head of the table in the association's room. My destination is clear

"IF I HAVE LAID A HAND ON PUBLIC PROPERTY, MAY IT BE HARAM AND POISON TO ME"

Tayyip Erdoğan, as I told you yesterday, for example, we do not touch public property. I vouch for the fact that Mayor Ekrem does not touch it with my honor. But for example, if we take with one hand and give with the other, we take from the rich and give to the poor. But Tayyip Bey, who takes from the poor and gives to the rich, if there are 8 arms on the octopus I showed yesterday, the arm reaching for public property, two are not enough for Tayyip Bey, he has extended 8 arms to them until today. If the AK Party asks why we have come to this point, how we have come, it is because all the accusations they make against us today have been experienced. Whoever decides who will receive the big tenders in the AK Party is the one reaching for public property. I will say only this one thing to Tayyip Bey. If I have laid a hand on public property, may it be haram and poison to me. If you have laid a hand on it, may it be haram and poison to you. You say this, say it once like this. Say, 'If I have laid a hand on public property, may it be haram and poison.' Let me hear it, let these ears hear it. I can say it this easily. Not a morsel of public property has passed through our throats. Let Tayyip Bey say the same thing, let's see. Let Tayyip Bey say the same thing. In the heart of Istanbul, in the heart of Istanbul, there is a file here that is not investigated, where the same plot of land is first bought from someone, its zoning is changed, and it is bought from the same AK Party member for 20 times the price, that is, selling the green area cheaply, changing the zoning, and buying it from the AK Party member for 20 times the price. Is there any AK Party member who says that this issue is without Tayyip Bey's knowledge? While there were 4 skyscrapers in this Istanbul, it went up to more than 250 skyscrapers during his own period. Is there any work done there without Tayyip Bey's connection? Am I the one who has Istanbul's plots of land looked at from a helicopter and takes notes, or are you? Reaching for public property...

"ESENLER IS A RADISH FIELD"

(Allegations about AKP municipalities)

Friends, everyone knows that if this is happening even in Fatih, think about the others. This is the beginning. It is in all of them. There will be many. Yesterday we already announced Bayrampaşa and Bahçelievler. There are many similar files about many municipalities. All of them will be announced. My main point is this, look. The leasing of billboards without a tender. The Court of Accounts says let's file a criminal complaint about this. The department makes a decision, the Court of Accounts does not send that criminal complaint. It holds it in its hand. We have one here, regarding the digital experience museum, with the Court of Accounts report, Ekrem Bey immediately appointed an internal auditor. All of these will enter the court file. He is now making the person responsible for the part where the Court of Accounts attributes fault a confessor. Well, we have already started that investigation ourselves when the Court of Accounts said these are here. For example, we haven't stopped. But the example of the hotel or the billboard in Fatih Municipality. Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality leased all billboards by tender. The tenders were audited by the Court of Accounts and deemed appropriate. Now the prosecutor has gone and thrown everyone who leased all the billboards and those who made that tender inside. But there is neither a statement from the Court of Accounts, the Court of Accounts says it is clean, nor has he caught a bribe anywhere, nor has he caught a connection, nor has he caught a link. He just says to the men inside, 'I gave a bribe to take this place, let me release you.' And to those who couldn't take it, 'I couldn't take this place, they didn't let me take it, let me release you.' Well, can this happen, friends? From there, our Fatih Mayor also says: 'Oh, these are true, everyone has them.' Actually, I know what he said when he first heard it. Oh, while Esenyurt is there, why is the Chairman dealing with me? I really, starting from Fatih, when I come to Esenyurt, I mean, I'm sorry, Esenler. When I come to Esenler, what, what, what, I mean. Esenler is a radish field