Fatih Altaylı's assessment of İzmir: 'If the CHP loses İzmir, Özgür Özel must step down as chairman'

Journalist Fatih Altaylı, in his column today criticizing the CHP's candidate choices in İzmir, stated that if the local elections are lost, CHP leader Özel should step down from his position. 

"THE İZMİR ELECTION IS AN EXCEPTION"

Altaylı wrote the following in his column:

“In my opinion, for a change of chairman in a party, one must sit in the seat for at least 5-6 years and lose one general and one local election during that time. Becoming chairman, participating in an election 6 months later, and leaving if you lose is not very reasonable, nor is it fair. Therefore, it would not be right for these election results to remove Özgür Özel from his seat. However, the İzmir election is an exception,” he wrote.

"IF HE DOES NOT STEP DOWN, HE MUST BE REMOVED"

Altaylı continued his remarks as follows:

“If the CHP loses İzmir in this election, Özgür Özel must step down from the chairmanship at that moment; if he does not step down, he must be removed. And along with his entire team. Because they made very visible and major mistakes in the candidate selection process in İzmir and in managing this process. It seems that for the first time, the AKP candidate in İzmir will receive a vote share this close to the CHP candidate.”