CHP Chairman Özgür Özel: 'If there are obstacles in our way, we will tear them down, but we will not engage in provocations'

Here are the highlights from Özgür Özel's speech:

You have earned the right to take to the streets tonight, you have earned the right to protest, I salute you all with respect...

Every shade of the Left and the Right is here...

Erdoğan gave an unlawful order; what can the governor do, what can the police chief do...

I am addressing the Governor of Istanbul; history will be written here in Istanbul tonight, do not stand in its way, you cannot stand in its way...

Friends at the Valens Aqueduct, come to this side; whatever we do tonight, we will do it together. We must stand together for our friends in detention.

I am saying this for the group at the Valens Aqueduct: if you throw fireworks at the police, I cannot defend that... Please, let us maintain our peaceful and public position... We are right, we will win...

In this square, we all want the same thing, and we are shouting together: 'There is no salvation alone, either all together or none of us...'

I brought you greetings from Ekrem İmamoğlu...

We are striving to ensure that whatever the university students at Boğaziçi want comes to pass.

Erdoğan says, 'Calls for street protests are unacceptable; Turkey is not a country founded on the streets.' Mr. Erdoğan, know this: this country, this beautiful city, risked death so that foreign boots would not step here. He ordered his soldiers to die.

The grandfathers of the Kurds, Turks, Lazs, and Circassians in this square lie side by side there. But then, with the signature of one man, the navies of that country came and occupied Istanbul.

The first reaction to this was in the rallies in the squares of Istanbul. It was through the rallies held by Istanbul University students.

While the atmosphere created by the one-man rule was step-by-step bringing the country to these days, it was again Istanbul University that first overcame an obstacle. If this square exists today, it is thanks to the determination of the youth from Istanbul University!

President Özgür, let us cut off the contact in front of the Valens Aqueduct! The gas from there is coming here, this square is being provoked. Do not provoke this square, I am telling the Istanbul Police Chief.

If there are obstacles in our way, we will tear them down, but we will not engage in provocations!

Opposition parties came here and showed their support... As the CHP, we do not see ourselves as the owners of this square, but as a component of this square, a component of this struggle, and one of the most important components of the action being put forth.

President Ekrem entered the prosecutor's interrogation an hour ago... We think that the prosecutor's phase of those two interrogations will take at least five hours today. If he is referred to court, just as much time could pass. Our lawyer friends informed us that the process in Çağlayan could continue until the first light of morning.

30 separate prosecutors will take statements there. We met with President Ekrem today... President Ekrem said, 'The hundreds of thousands in that square are standing up for me and for the will of Istanbul... The trust Istanbul has placed in us is Saraçhane,' and we followed what he said and are standing up for Saraçhane.

However, if we see any ill intent, we will be wherever we need to go, let everyone be sure of that.

Nothing will be thrown at the police at the Valens Aqueduct, and they will not fire tear gas to this side... Our strength lies in our courage and our righteousness; we will not fall into the wrong position while we are in the right...

Tomorrow, there will be exactly 5,960 CHP ballot boxes and 5,960 solidarity boxes in 81 provinces. We say to our members: come, vote, and make history...

We came for the struggle, not for conflict; we came to win, not to lose.

You took the bans from Tayyip Bey's hands and tore them up...

Tomorrow, we are heading to the ballot boxes to choose the person who will send Tayyip Erdoğan away. The only hope of the youth is for Tayyip Erdoğan to leave.

When the trial process began, President Ekrem said to me, 'My Chairman, even if I am not among you on March 23, that ballot box is more important than anything, will you protect it?' and I said to him, 'Unless I am under the ground on March 23, I will be at the ballot box.'

From tomorrow on, the era of the Ministers' children will end, and the era of the Nation's children will begin.

President Mansur is also with us, and our hope is to be able to take that same photo we took a short while ago with President Ekrem tonight or tomorrow.