Özgür Özel calls for 'transparency' by disclosing his bank accounts: 'From the day we entered politics'

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel addressed the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) indictment and his own bank accounts at the CHP Group Meeting.

Özgür Özel called for the investigation and disclosure of the assets of all politicians. Özel stated that he has two existing bank accounts. He explained that he has had an İş Bankası account in his hometown of Manisa for years, and another account opened by the Parliament after he became a deputy. Özel spoke as follows:

"We want to pass the Political Ethics Law this week. We have been proposing it for eight years, and you have been rejecting it. Let the financing of politics become transparent. Erdoğan is first, I am second, and Mayor Ekrem is third. Let the assets, income, and expenses of all of us be investigated from the day we entered politics until today. I have one account at the Manisa branch of İş Bankası. And one account opened here by the Parliament.

Let it be examined in minute detail, where the money came from and where it went. 'Özgür Özel bought a car.' 'Where did he make the payment from?' 'He bought a house.' 'Where did he pay from?' Let the Political Ethics Law be enacted, let this audit be online, digital, and constant. If you have confidence in the past, Erdoğan, account for everything from the day you entered politics until today, and I will do the same, and Mr. Bahçeli should do the same. Our presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu should as well. Let the nation be certain about the past, present, and future of everyone aspiring to the presidency. Let everything be transparent."

We have listened to so many slanders. Be patient, be patient, be patient. Debunk, debunk, debunk; we are tired. Now, a bloated indictment has emerged. We will certainly be tried, without arrest, on live television. We are ready for a process where the politics of all deputies become transparent. Are you? If you are, if you have the courage, if you haven't eaten anything forbidden and have nothing to hide, why don't we open it to everyone instead of doing this through slanders behind closed doors? 'There is no money in the account', 'He has fled, he has done this or that.'

You dug everywhere like a mole and couldn't find a single penny. You put fake dollar images into an empty safe. When we asked TRT, they said 'The agency provided it,' and when we asked the agency, they said 'It's stock video.' You clung to the lie of 'items found in the safe in Gaziosmanpaşa' when only a single seal had fallen from the municipality's safe to the floor. What else is there, what else?

That is why we have full confidence in ourselves and our friends. Your indictment is there; open a live broadcast, let the nation hear both the slander and the answer to it. If there is a proven crime, if there is someone who committed a crime, let them pay the price. We did not eat this nation's money, but may God damn anyone who has a thousand times over."