CHP leader Özgür Özel criticizes Erdoğan over Hatay: 'There is a stone in his heart'

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel spoke at his party's candidate introduction meeting in Ankara.

Highlights from Özel's statement are as follows:

“He has tasked us with a unity that will make Turkey a single fist again, that will convince everyone that we can rise again in a resistance, not for the interests of a single person or a single party, but in a way that prioritizes the interests of the entire society. I greet with gratitude all the chairmen who have served our party, the two chairmen who are not with us, and the chairmen here. There are sometimes debates about loyalty in politics; we all feel great loyalty to our predecessors, but there is something I want to remind this hall of. Showing loyalty to a party's former chairmen is done by making their party the government.

5 SURVEY DETAILS

"While determining our candidates, we listened to our organization, we listened to our voters, we listened to our candidate nominees, we listened to the voice of the street, we met with opinion leaders, we assigned our party members, we received their reports, we conducted 3 thousand pieces of research, and we obtained very important data for the determination of our candidates with 339 thousand unique survey results. We carried out the process of continuing candidacy if satisfaction surveys were positive. In some special cases, we chose to collect data from the field and read the demands of the voters through up to 5 surveys. As a result, our candidates are here before you. There were those who were candidate nominees but could not become candidates. In recent days, we see the critical statements of 3, 5, or 10 dissatisfied friends who have left the party in some television programs and newspapers. I respect them all to the end, but what should really be talked about is the hero of my heart, who is in my heart and in the headlines; there are those who, on the morning after the day they were not nominated, called the candidate and said, 'I wanted it very much, it didn't happen, they chose you, I am ready to work,' and started their duty on the phone; there are those who handed over the budget they set aside for the campaign to the district chairman. 3-5 people are making the party a subject of debate, but there are those who do not let anyone debate their party loyalty.

"LIVABLE CITIES ARE CITIES MANAGED BY CHP MAYORS"

The most important service we provide in municipalities is that we spent the nation's money for the nation. We did not waste, we saved. In natural disasters, fires, and floods, we stood by our citizens with the power of all our municipalities. We organized solidarity. During the pandemic, we delivered services to our people that the government could not provide. We overcame all the obstacles created by the government, which seized our municipalities' donation accounts, together with our people. By the decision of our party, we did not cut the water of 1 million 173 thousand subscribers who could not pay their water bills; we first postponed some of these, and then we forgave a very significant portion of them.

In all research conducted today, the most livable cities are the cities managed by CHP mayors. At the very top of the cities that students prefer in university exams are cities with CHP mayors, with a rate of 85 percent. People come to our cities for vacation. Voting for a CHP mayor actually means both rewarding the past and looking to the future with hope. We cannot host everyone in Turkey in CHP municipalities, but everyone in Turkey can bring those CHP municipalities they admire from afar to their own cities by voting for CHP candidates. My call is to Bursa, to Denizli, to Manisa, to Samsun, Uşak, Balıkesir, Malatya, Tokat, Tunceli; our call is to our citizens who are deprived of CHP municipalities all over Turkey.

"WE ARE EMBARKING ON A NEW PATH"

We are embarking on a new path; we are embarking on a new path to make our cities resilient against disasters, to deliver more social aid more fairly, to create more social spaces for our youth, and to make municipalities institutions where the public has a say, with our staff where the power of competent women and the energy of youth prevail.

HE RECALLED ERDOĞAN'S HATAY REMARKS

(Strong reaction to Erdoğan) He said clearly and explicitly, 'Hatay suffered because its municipality is not with us.' I could not find a political answer to this statement, I could not find words to say to this statement, because it was tied to a stony-heartedness that would punish the earthquake victim before us for the vote they cast in the past and could blackmail them according to the vote they will cast in the future. There is a stone in his heart; there is no conscience or fairness in his heart. However, there are Republican People's Party members who love both Hatay and Turkey very much standing against him. He will learn this.