Özgür Özel officially announces his candidacy!

CHP Group Chairman Özgür Özelannounced that he is a candidate for the CHP chairmanship. Explaining his position paper, Özel stated the following:

"This is the story of those who woke up on the morning of May 28th in Manisa, Malatya, Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara, Adana, Edirne, and across 81 provinces, and have not been able to sleep peacefully since that day. This is the story of a journey. It is the story of those who set out without thinking about what the end would be, and those who did not worry about what would happen to them. To those who ask what pushed me to this decision and which groups are behind it, this is the story of those who answer that it is the friend groups of my father, myself, and my daughter." 

To those who ask who is behind us, this is the story of those who say the promise we made to Vera, whom we could not reunite with her father during the holiday, is behind us; and those who say the justice we could not bring to the Şenyaşar family is behind us. 

This is the story of those who could not say stop to the loss of the election, and those who suffered the sorrow of being unable to prevent the defeat. It is not the story of those who see themselves as blameless, but the story of those who refuse to act as if nothing happened while seeing no fault in themselves. It is the story of those who feel responsibility. It is the story of young people and women who are determined not to make the same mistakes again. It is the story of cadres who believe in changing the CHP to change Turkey. Beyond a change in leadership, this is the story of a movement that draws strength from its cadres and gives strength to its cadres. This story is the story of Atatürk supporters, honest people, İsmet Paşa, and the Karaoğlans. 

It is a huge step taken not by a single person, but by a cadre. It is the first step of a dream of great power, not a struggle for intra-party power. With this march, we aim for a great challenge based on Atatürk's revolutionary and transformative character. 

We will move forward with new approaches for a new politics in the new century. A political will that has changed the fate of our country and signed many revolutions has the power and strength to do this again. We succeeded before, we will succeed again.

A political will that has changed the fate of our country and signed many revolutions has the power and strength to do this again. We succeeded before, we will succeed again.

The great hope and belief in change that emerged before the election quickly turned into deep disappointment. Contrary to social demands and needs, our party's management did not seriously investigate the reasons for the defeat and did not draw a new roadmap. They produced different excuses for the result obtained and unfortunately did not take political responsibility for the defeat. They focused on protecting intra-party power.

Our voters, who lost their sense of trust, were dragged into such an intense emotional rupture that they could abandon our party and even the political institution. Instead of identifying this situation and taking steps to repair it, the party management chose to ignore this fracture. In this position paper, which we set out with the goal of the century of change, we take a stand and offer our solutions for our country's future on a series of topics, from macroeconomic policies to the problems of laborers, from the housing crisis to the refugee crisis, and for our country's tomorrow; from pluralism to the separation of powers, from judicial independence to social peace, from a rights-based social state to planning-oriented public development, from active social policy practices to the defense industry, from agriculture-based industry to security issues, and from the Kurdish issue, which we see as a matter of democracy, to foreign policy.

We take an uncompromising position and stance alongside the working class against the exploitation faced by gray, white, and blue-collar workers, from production pressure that increases work-related deaths to strike bans and union pressures.

We reject the understanding of politics that separates, alienates, and polarizes society by exploiting the differences imposed and fed by the one-man regime. We do not accept the 'us and them' division, nor ethnic, sectarian, and social polarization. We defend the right to equality, housing, labor, nutrition, and organization for all social segments together. We embrace all differences and take ownership of all the poor, unemployed, and insecure people of society together. We adopt all their demands and hopes as our common goal. We reject politics that cuts through and divides society vertically, and we adopt a horizontal understanding of politics that touches every segment of society. Our commitment to Atatürk's principles and the Six Arrows program, which represent our founding values, is an expression of the respect we have for our historical accumulation, as well as the foundation of self-confident politics, a guide that sheds light on our future, and a compass that shows the right path. Our position, which both embraces our Six Arrows—symbolized by the principles of Republicanism, Secularism, Revolutionism, Nationalism, Populism, and Statism—with its historical necessity, adopts it with factual consistency, and develops it without eroding it with the conditions of the day and the requirements of the age, is detailed in the booklet in your hands, which we will share with the entire public.

This ideological clarity does not constitute an obstacle to political and social alliances. Alliance politics should be a politics where those who form an alliance do not transform into or resemble each other; on the contrary, the most important condition for a productive alliance is that parties that do not resemble each other unite around common goals, if any, while preserving their own identities. Alliances should be designed in a way that finds resonance in the party's conscience.

Alliance politics should not be a politics where those who form an alliance transform into each other. Parties that do not resemble each other must preserve their own identities. Alliances should be designed in a way that finds resonance in the party's conscience. Our party giving 39 parliamentary seats from electable positions to other parties has left damage that will not be forgotten in party history. Processes were operated where even informing elected boards was not done, including the protocols signed between parties. A management style that uses transcendent powers but does not take responsibility cannot be accepted. 

Those who draw strength from the unlawful decision to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention have new targets: Law No. 6284 on the Prevention of Violence Against Women, the Lanzarote Convention to prevent the sexual exploitation of children, and gender equality are now targets. 

The government has abandoned the youth to darkness. Young people cannot receive quality education and are struggling with a housing crisis under the pressure of religious sects. Young people are waiting for a politics that produces sincere and clear solutions, not one that hides behind excuses or beats around the bush. There is a need for a courageous political understanding that does not just address young people, but creates hope itself, decides with young people, and is open to contribution and companionship. We are on the side of labor, production, the environment, women, and youth. In the new period, the CHP will be the spokesperson for society's rights demands not only in parliament but also in the field. Our goal is not only to make our party the best-managed party in Turkey, but to make it the best-managed institution. 

The CHP of the 2nd century must continue its path with radical changes in terms of its membership structure, organization form, decision-making process, and intra-party democracy. The party's leader, cadres, organizational structure, style of doing politics, and discourse, as well as its charter, must be renewed. The management approach that sometimes exceeds and sometimes erodes the powers and responsibilities in the charter must be abandoned entirely. 

We are determined to contribute to all proposals and changes to be made in the charter and program in a more democratic and positive direction. However, it is impossible to achieve a healthy structural transformation under the pressure of elections and congresses. After contributing to the changes to be made and completing the congress, we will initiate the charter and program congress, which will be realized with both theoretical and organizational contributions, immediately after the local election calendar, and we will carry it out within 2024. 

By carrying out a comprehensive membership reform, the participation of members in all processes, including the direct election of general chairmen, will be ensured. Primaries will be taken as the basis for determining deputies, mayors, and council members, and criteria measuring public satisfaction will be observed for administrators who will be nominated again. 

A 3-term limit will be introduced for headquarters administrators, deputies, mayors, and council members. 

Equal representation for women will definitely be adopted. 

Two-thirds of the Central Executive Board (MYK) members will be selected from among the Party Assembly (PM) members, and the party side elected as general chairman will receive a vote of confidence from the PM at the first meeting. The authority to cast a vote of no confidence and recall will be defined. 

The PM will be operated like a real parliament, and the PM, not advisors, will be made the absolute authority in determining party policies. 

The bond between provincial and district organizations will be strengthened. 

The party school will be renewed, and a party academy will be established.