Former CHP US representative: Mr. Özgür was busy working as a pharmacy assistant

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel met with MIT Undersecretary İbrahim Kalın at the party headquarters in recent days. Kalın and agency officials gave a presentation to Özel and the CHP delegation and answered their questions.

ÖZEL ANNOUNCED THEY REQUESTED SUPPORT FROM MIT

Making a statement regarding the details of the meeting, Özel stated that they requested support from MIT regarding foreign memberships and used the following expressions:

"For memberships in Turkey, you can become a member with the reference of two CHP members and the approval of the district and provincial chairs. We have no problems here. We had parted ways with our representative in America. Currently, there are applications to serve in the CHP representation in 52 states and in over 20 states. They want to establish a CHP representation and a CHP union.

I asked İbrahim Kalın about this so that we do not face a situation tomorrow where someone says, 'Look, look, this member is a FETÖ member,' due to terrorist organizations, primarily the Fethullah Gülen Community in America and Germany, infiltrating CHP organizations. In other words, I don't have a district chair, a provincial chair, or a member there. I asked about intelligence support regarding new applications from abroad, specifically concerning FETÖ and other terrorist organizations. He said with great pleasure, 'We can provide such support. We can provide it to any party that requests it.' I also said that I would request such support for representative appointments. Such a thing is out of the question for Turkey. We are already proceeding with our own organization's reference and recommendation system."

HARSH CRITICISM OF ÖZEL FROM FORMER CHP REPRESENTATIVE

A reaction came from Yurter Özcan, the former CHP representative to the US, regarding Özel's request from MIT. Criticizing Özel with harsh expressions, Özcan stated the following in a post on his social media account:

"Today, Özgür Özel announced that they will open representative offices in every state of the US and that they will ask for help from MIT against FETÖ and PKK infiltration into CHP's foreign organizations.

"NO TERRORIST ORGANIZATION MEMBER HAS EVER INFILTRATED THE US REPRESENTATION UNTIL TODAY"

He should not worry; no terrorist organization has ever infiltrated the CHP US Representation to date. This deliberate, thoughtless comment aims to cast suspicion on the CHP US organization, where we receive 85 percent of the votes and have more than 4,000 members.

"I WAS ACCUSED OF ERGENEKONISM BY THE AK PARTY AND FETÖ"

I have been interested in the country's issues since my youth. My interest in politics comes from my admiration for Atatürk. In 2009, when I was only 27 years old, I was accused of Ergenekonism by the AK Party and FETÖ; the Cumhuriyet newspaper gave front-page coverage to the work I did in Washington that year. I explained that FETÖ was responsible for the Ergenekon conspiracy through meetings I organized at the US Congress. I entered politics that year upon the invitation of Mr. Deniz Baykal.

"WHILE I WAS DOING THIS WORK IN 2009, MR. ÖZGÜR WAS BUSY WORKING AS A PHARMACY ASSISTANT"

While I was doing this work in 2009, Mr. Özgür was busy working as a pharmacy assistant in the rural areas of Manisa. My advice to him is not to comment too much on subjects he does not know, and to stop offending party members for the sake of 'normalization' with the AKP. It would be a mistake to expect Özgür Özel, who is a hero to Bülent Arınç but not to Atatürk-loving CHP members, to understand us."