Müsavat Dervişoğlu visits İmamoğlu and Özdağ: 'If İmamoğlu hadn't been a candidate, he wouldn't have been arrested'

İYİ Party Chairman Müsavat Dervişoğlu visited Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and Zafer Party leader Ümit Özdağ, who are being held in Silivri Prison.

Speaking to members of the press after the visit, Dervişoğlu stated the following:

He is being held inside as a victim of operations planned solely for political reasons. If he hadn't been a presidential candidate, he would neither be imprisoned in Silivri nor would there be such recklessness as to cancel his diploma.

Likewise, Zafer Party Chairman Ümit Özdağ… We worked with him in the past at the İYİ Party. He is also a brother to my fellow party members. He, too, is being held hostage in Silivri today within the framework of the political struggle he has waged. Therefore, we will be the followers of their rights and justice.

I want to send a message to the public. Those who read history of law and politics know about the Storming of the Bastille.

It happened during the French Revolution. That prison is the most prominent symbol of absolute monarchy. Seven prisoners were rescued in the storming of the prison, but the occupation and storming of the prison went down in the history of law and democracy as the precursor to the collapse of the monarchy.

I liken the order established in Silivri today to the Bastille Prison. Just as the Bastille was the symbol of monarchy, Silivri has today turned into a symbol of one-man rule and autocracy.

It is impossible for people who believe in democracy, law, and justice to accept this.

Every autocracy and one-man rule will inevitably have an end. These days will also certainly come to an end. We are going through a period where people's rebellions and the paths of those who oppose the order they want to establish intersect.

It is also obvious that this has turned into a process where injustice, lawlessness, and unfairness are protested by every segment of society and people are taking a stand.

We will continue our struggle in accordance with democracy, justice, and the constitution.

Just as the Bastille Prison represented the monarchy and was destroyed, you can be sure as your own name that these structures representing autocracy and one-man rule will also certainly be destroyed.

May our nation be in high spirits and strong. May they never lose their sense of rights and justice.