Message from detained CHP member Rıza Akpolat: 'It must be provided without fail'

CHP Deputy Chairmen Gökan Zeybek and Gül Çiftci, along with CHP Istanbul Provincial Chairman Özgür Çelik, provided information regarding the latest developments in front of the municipality building in the evening hours.

"OPERATION"

Stating that the detention of Rıza Akpolat is an assassination of character, CHP Istanbul Provincial Chairman Özgür Çelik said the following:

"This is an attempt to weaken the perception of Turkey's leading party in the eyes of the public. This is an attempt to stop the Republican People's Party's march to power. The people of Beşiktaş know Rıza Akpolat very well. The Republican People's Party knows Rıza Akpolat very well. Rıza Akpolat is a fellow traveler of ours who has served as a youth branch executive, district chairman, and provincial deputy chairman in the Republican People's Party. Rıza Akpolat has been serving as the Mayor of Beşiktaş for 6 years. The social municipal practices that Rıza Akpolat has implemented in Beşiktaş for 6 years have become an example for other districts of Istanbul. In this respect, the operation carried out is an operation against the Republican People's Party. The operation is an operation aimed at stopping the Republican People's Party's march to power. As the Republican People's Party, we will continue our struggle upright against these operations. The Republican People's Party is a political party born under the conditions of the National Struggle. The Republican People's Party is the party of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Rıza Akpolat is a mayor of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's party, who has made it his motto to serve his country and his nation. In this respect, the Republican People's Party is here. We are at the Beşiktaş Municipality. We are standing tall, and we will continue to fight for democracy together from here.

“WE WILL CONTINUE”

They condemn retirees to live on 14 thousand liras. They condemn minimum wage earners to live on 22 thousand liras. They are dragging the people into poverty and misery. But citizens see CHP municipalities as a door to solutions, and Republican People's Party municipalities stand by our neighbors and citizens whom they have impoverished and dragged into misery. This is exactly why they are carrying out these operations. They are trying to stop the Republican People's Party municipalities. They are trying to stop the Republican People's Party's march to power. They will not be able to achieve this. We will not allow this. We will continue to serve our people. And we will stand tall to protect democracy. We will continue to protect the national will. Because we know that sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the nation."

“STATEMENTS HAVE JUST BEGUN TO BE TAKEN”

CHP Deputy Chairman Gül Çiftci, who stated that they are following the detention process with a strong army of lawyers, said, "We will take our mayor from there and bring him back to this building to serve the people of Beşiktaş again. As of this hour, statements have just begun to be taken. Health checks are finished. Statements are continuing. The file is a voluminous file. We estimate that it will take a long time. The detention period ends as of Thursday, and we will start providing you with more reliable information as of Thursday. The file is proceeding on the basis of confidentiality. We do not have clear information about the file yet. As we gain information step by step, as statements begin to be taken and continue, we will continue to inform you. We have expressed this in different ways before. We said it in the case known to the public as the 'fool' case conducted against our Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor. We also said it during the process experienced by our Esenyurt Mayor Ahmet Özer. We will not allow those who try to design politics through the judiciary. We will not allow the character assassination operation carried out against our Beşiktaş Mayor Rıza Akpolat, who was elected with a record number of votes by the entire public in Beşiktaş. We will not allow our mayors, whom the people elected at the ballot box, to be removed from their duties by court decisions and through the judiciary," she said.

“IT IS CLEAR THAT THE FILE IS EMPTY”

CHP Deputy Chairman Gökan Zeybek also provided the following information:

"When our deputy friends Mr. Yunus Emre and Mr. Cahit Arı visited Rıza Akpolat at the Vatan Security Directorate a little while ago, the first thing Rıza Akpolat said was, 'We were sending meals to 5 thousand of our citizens daily from our soup kitchen. Our request from you is that the food needs of these citizens in need be provided without fail.' His only wish is again the people of Beşiktaş, again the solution of the problems of the laborers of Beşiktaş. He expressed his feelings of solidarity in the strongest way. He stated that his morale is very high. But the fact that the Beşiktaş Municipality and BELTAŞ employees, who were detained in a dawn operation, are being interrogated today at 16:00 also requires us to ask the question of why this rush. I mean, if you are going to start the interrogation after 36 hours, one also needs to ask why you detained people in the darkness of the night, in the early light of the morning. It is clear that the file is empty, they need time to fill the file.

“ABANDON THIS CHARACTER ASSASSINATION”

We will continue our populist, public-oriented management approach in our Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, in all 26 municipalities we govern, and in all 412 of our municipalities in Turkey. We will produce services by increasing our revenues, starting from the most needy and disadvantaged groups of society, with our social policies, from nurseries to soup kitchens, from student dormitories to city restaurants, from home care services to student scholarships. My call from here is this: Today is the second day, there are two questions you will ask the Beşiktaş Mayor. There is only one answer you will get. You also know that the work done is correct. Abandon this character assassination. Take his statement before midnight today, release him. Let Rıza Akpolat come to his office at the municipality tomorrow morning and continue his duty."