Message on presidential candidacy from Özgür Özel

CHP's elected Chairman Özgür Özel came to Silivri to observe the "espionage," "diploma," and "Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality" cases in which his party's presidential candidate and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu is being tried.

Addressing citizens waiting in front of Silivri Prison after the hearings, Özel reacted to the fact that three separate cases were being heard on the same day.

Özel stated, "Today, Ekrem İmamoğlu has three separate hearings here. He needs to present a defense in all three, his turn to speak has come, and he needs to listen to the others speaking. But three simultaneous hearings. It is not a manageable situation," he said.

"THE REGIME IS CHALLENGING JUSTICE"

Making assessments regarding the trials, Özel said, "What is being done here is neither a trial nor a search for justice," and made the following statement:

"What is being done here is not even about fulfilling formal requirements. What is being done here is to create noise, to overlook, to devalue, to trivialize, and the work being done here is actually to show that the decision has already been made, that the words of the person defending themselves here have no value, that the lawyer's words have no value, and that by trying one person in three places at the same time, all power, authority, and instructions are in one place, coming from one place, and what is being said to all of us here is this: 'Don't bother. We have already made the decision, we have convicted whom we were going to convict. What happens after this is our business.' What is being done here today is this: The regime is challenging justice. The regime is giving instructions to justice. The regime is challenging fairness, the expectation of justice, and conscience. And we are challenging this unjust regime, we are challenging it, we are challenging it."

"THE DIPLOMA CASE IS A CASE TO HAVE ERDOĞAN'S RIVAL'S DIPLOMA ANNULLED"

Touching upon the cases filed against İmamoğlu, Özel used the following expressions:

"Here, in your presence, we say it once again. The diploma case is a case to have Erdoğan's rival's diploma annulled. The espionage case is Erdoğan's attempt to say, 'I've tried every smear and it didn't stick, let's call him a spy.' The IMM case is a case of, 'My rival defeated the candidates I showed three times in a row and was elected to the IMM. I spoke big, I said whoever wins Istanbul wins Turkey, the one who wins Istanbul should not be able to be a candidate against me. I must punish him.'"

"WE WILL NOT LET YOU RESTRICT EKREM İMAMOĞLU'S RIGHT TO DEFENSE"

Making statements regarding the right to defense, Özel spoke as follows:

"As the Chairman of the party, as a fellow traveler of Ekrem İmamoğlu and all our friends, and as a citizen of the Republic of Turkey, I say this: We will not let you restrict Ekrem İmamoğlu's right to defense.

We will read the facts to your faces one by one. You will be buried under all the slanders and lies you have spread. If you are accusing one person of corruption, theft, bribery, espionage, and diploma forgery on the same day, there is only one conclusion to be drawn from this: You are very afraid of the person in front of you. If you are forcing it so much that one person will be a document forger, a diploma forger, a thief, corrupt, someone who rigs tenders, takes bribes, and commits extortion all at once, it is clear that you have no hope of defeating this person politically. Your only hope is the slanders you spread. And that does not suit us."

"ONE OF US WILL BE PRESIDENT"

Speaking about the presidential candidacy, Özel used the following expressions:

"Mayor Ekrem sent a greeting here from the courtroom. He said, 'We will continue to walk with Chairman Özgür on the path he walks.' Together with our Mayor Ekrem, our Mayor Mansur, all our mayors, our fellow travelers, and our organization, we will not deviate from the right path.

I would like to give some good news from here. Regardless of who the candidate is, who the Chairman is, who stands on the path of this march, who turns back, who falls, who lies inside, or who walks on the road, I say this: The path is greater than the sum of us. The path is greater than all of us. The path is even greater than the traveler. Because the end of the path is a righteous path... It doesn't matter which one of us will be president. It doesn't matter who will be president, but in the end, either one of us, or someone else entirely, but someone from among us will be president, and Erdoğan will go. This determination is our only determination. Let them worry about what comes after this."