CHP Chairman Özgür Özel makes first statement after meeting: Comments on the lawsuit filed by Erdoğan

AKP Chairman and President Erdoğan has filed a 1 million lira compensation lawsuit against both CHP Chairman Özgür Özel and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. The statements made during the protest against the appointment of a trustee in Esenyurt were cited as the justification.

CHP Chairman Özel made a statement regarding the matter following his party's closed-door session in Istanbul.

Özel stated, "I truly thought that it would be an important step for Mr. Erdoğan not to file a compensation lawsuit against me, and for me not to file one against him, from November 5th of last year to November 5th of this year—that is, during my tenure as chairman—but he could not wait until November 5th."

Highlights from Özel's speech are as follows:

"He is trying to manufacture victimhood for himself, pretending to have heard insults when none were made, extracting insults from yesterday's speech as if he were not the one doing the insulting, and as if the victims were not Esenyurt and those who voted for the CHP candidate. It is a tactical move. We have seen such tactical moves from Erdoğan many times.

He has accused us of being coup plotters and members of a terrorist organization. If you are going to look back 10 years into Ahmet Özer's past and label him a terrorist for speaking with a member of a terrorist organization in phone calls from 10 years ago, then if we were to look at your own parliamentary group—never mind phone calls with Fethullah Gülen or Gülenists—those who ate 'maklube' from the same tray would likely have enough numbers to form a group if they weren't already members of parliament.

When I say this, you ask, 'Did you call us terrorists?' I didn't call you terrorists; I said that if we applied your definition of terrorism to you, you would also be called terrorists.

It is truly incomprehensible to fail to understand this and attempt to manage perception instead. As I said this morning, if Mr. Erdoğan's capacity were in the hands of Hitler and his team—no error in the analogy—they would return to Berlin as the Russian army entered and run to those they held in concentration camps, saying, 'Today is a day of unity and solidarity; we are all in the same boat.' My brother, when you have the power, you apply the law of the enemy; when you lose power or see a risk, you turn around and say, 'Come on, let's all be Turkey together.' There is no sincerity here.

"OUR NATION DOES NOT WANT FIGHTING"

I will continue not to personalize issues and not to use insults. Because our nation does not want fighting. Erdoğan has a report in his hands. AKP members are saying, 'Sir, normalization is benefiting the CHP.' They are taking steps to push us out of the normalization process."