Özgür Özel's response to Kılıçdaroğlu regarding the group meeting: We exchanged messages with Kemal Bey

CHP's elected Chairman Özgür Özel visited former İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Tunç Soyer and Şenol Aslanoğlu at the Buca Prison in İzmir.

Following the visit, Özel made the following statements:

"With the passing of my uncle, my dear uncle, yesterday, there was a funeral ceremony in Manisa today. Many of our friends attended that ceremony. That is why we were in Manisa until the end of the ceremony. Afterward, I visited our Ankara Provincial Chairman at Şakran Prison. In addition to this, I visited Ümit Erkol and our Güzelbahçe Mayor, Mustafa Başkan. I visited Süleyman Ekici. He is very important to us in this respect; the cooperatives in İzmir had stopped, and there was a great uprising. On the day all seven of those cooperatives were arrested, the decision for the seventh had been issued by the municipal council. It was very important that agreements were made, issued by the municipal council, and that the process began to move forward with the consent of the victims in the cooperative, and that keys began to be handed over in some stages.

That is why I view the operations carried out against them, this cooperative process in İzmir... The Justice and Development Party uses a language in İzmir that exploits the grievances in these cooperatives very much. We, with great determination, want these cooperatives to progress and for the grievances to be eliminated. Stopping the progress here and conducting an operation on this is truly not a well-intentioned act, and it is a situation that will victimize many people from İzmir for nothing.

Then we came here. Of course, let me say this first; Mr. Ümit Erkol is someone who was on the cooperative board of directors without signatory authority. There are some friends of ours who were arrested because they were on the cooperative supervisory board. There are people who were arrested after being members of the cooperative for six days. This is really, I mean, not something that should happen. Where in Turkey has there been a trial with detention in a cooperative case? Unthinkable things are happening. And cooperativism is not a crime.

Especially, I must express this; I also visited Tunç Soyer a little while ago. While some were finding formulas for contracting in that urban transformation issue, a formula was sought with good intentions where there was no contractor but a cooperative, and while important work was to be done regarding this, a crisis was experienced with the 10-fold increase in construction costs. While there are tens of thousands of housing victims in Istanbul... excuse me, tens of thousands of housing victims in Istanbul, and the AK Party assumes no responsibility here, for example, the grievances experienced by 30 thousand people in Esenyurt in AK Party municipalities... It is truly distressing that our friends are being tried like this in a matter where a remedy was found with good intentions and so that there would be no more grievances.

And it is the product of a well-intentioned effort, and you know, there is no one defrauding, no one being defrauded, no one putting money in their pocket. There are just things that went wrong, and we are in the process of recovering them, as everyone knows. I visited Mayor Tunç. I visited Şenol Aslanoğlu, our previous term İzmir Provincial Chairman. I visited Elvasi Vazgaç. Of course, this is a holiday visit, a solidarity visit."

Responding to journalists' questions after the visit, Özgür Özel said the following regarding the letter sent by Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu for the cancellation of the group meeting:

"Dear friends, before the convention, or rather, Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu was not a member of parliament, and I had been elected group chairman by unanimous vote of our parliamentary group. I was elected by unanimous vote immediately after the oath-taking ceremony following the May 28, 2023 elections. Then we became candidates at the convention, we competed. I was elected Chairman, I was automatically the group chairman.

Actually, this nullity decision does not take my certificate of election from me. The YSK (Supreme Election Council) does not cancel the certificate anyway, nor does it say 'I have done so'. I am the elected chairman. However, they are applying a precautionary measure with the nullity decision, but that precautionary measure does not take away my parliamentary membership nor my chairmanship. There is actually a completely unlawful decision in place stating that I cannot use some powers related to the chairmanship until the court decision is finalized.

But still, as a precaution, this time we, as a precaution; in accordance with the provision that 'if the group chairmanship becomes vacant, a new one is immediately elected at the first closed meeting', we gathered in accordance with the procedure with the call of the group management elected by our party itself—that is, not mine, the group management—our 12 friends, and we renewed the group chairmanship election. We notified the Parliament of this as well. They also registered this and entered it into their systems. There is nothing regarding this matter.

If the purpose regarding the group here is for this group meeting to be held at another time, that meeting was held. If the group chairmanship becomes vacant in some way, then it can be held again. If God grants health, the group chairmanship is not becoming vacant right now. I have no intention of resigning from the group chairmanship. But my uncle was alive at this time yesterday, we laid him to rest today. If someone has pinned their hopes on that, if something happens to me, they will elect a new one from scratch.

But I do not find it right or healthy for things to be said about this group meeting by those who want 'come on, let this party experience a little more tension from now on, etc.'. Since Kemal Bey is not a member of parliament, it is not possible for him to be the group chairman. Regarding group elections, the group management may have a will, the group chairman may have a will. But there is no such hierarchy between the chairman and the group chairman. One manages the group, the other manages the party.

This is all I have to say about this. I mean, there was no need for such a letter. Anyone who knows the Parliament's internal regulations and the group's internal regulations knows that such a letter will not produce any results. I am also the person who has held this duty for the longest time in parliamentary history. When we look at the group deputy chairmanship, Engin Altay had done it for a few months or a year longer than me, I don't remember exactly, but when we add the group chairmanship and this process that has been going on for 2.5 years, we know these things. I honestly cannot understand who is hoping for what by creating a new dose of controversy every day as if there is a new tension, a new area of debate in the party for nothing."

"IF YOU MAKE SOMEONE WHO COORDINATES TGRT A CONSULTANT, IT WILL HARM CHP"

Speaking about the vehicles displayed in front of the CHP Headquarters, which were emptied by police teams, by the Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu delegation brought to duty after the controversial court decision, Özel drew attention to Atakan Sönmez, whom Kılıçdaroğlu appointed as his press consultant.

"If you take someone who has been character-assassinating the Republican People's Party and many of our imprisoned friends inside for years, and someone who coordinates the channel that does this, who coordinates TGRT, and make them a press consultant, they have one goal: That will harm the CHP," said the CHP Leader, continuing his words as follows:

"He went there and put two cars, presented a lot of slander as if it were true, and shared it. One of the cars he put there was bought during Kemal Bey's time. Another vehicle was bought a few months ago, and its interior hasn't even been finished yet. He wrote false things. Then he says as an explanation—when it turned out that the incident was like this, especially the Aziz Sandıkçı issue— 'We didn't say anything for years, an armored vehicle was brought to Kemal Bey from Istanbul and used, we never saw it.' I mean, a member of parliament took that vehicle after the handover without us ever seeing it; that vehicle also appeared yesterday. This is a known thing. If there is a vehicle allocation from Aziz Sandıkçı, it is something done in the period before our administration. An armored vehicle issue...

All of these have come to light, he says: 'Oh, I chose those vehicles as an example, I said it in case there was such a thing.' Oh, can a press consultant who comes from TGRT and is an enemy of CHP do such a character assassination to the Republican People's Party for the new administration? Oh, how so, he does this anyway, can someone else do it? Someone who loves the party wouldn't do it, someone who loves Kemal Bey wouldn't do it, a human being wouldn't do this. It's not something that can happen. As if he were making fake news for one night on TGRT, in front of the party's sign, with the party's vehicles... And when the two things he said turned out to be lies, 'We randomly chose two vehicles from inside, we said it in case there was one, Kemal Bey will investigate.' I felt ashamed, I really felt ashamed. It's not something that can happen. But those whose guide is a crow, whose press consultant is from TGRT, such things happen to them; but it is a situation that breaks all of our hearts."

"WE EXCHANGED MESSAGES WITH KEMAL BEY"

Responding to a question regarding the claim that he did not answer Kılıçdaroğlu's condolence call after his uncle's passing, the CHP Leader clarified the issue as follows:

"No, it's not that I didn't answer such a call, it's like this; throughout the day, my phone was so full of holiday calls and condolence calls that the phone was no longer in a state to be answered. The phone was already off during the burial. Then I came out and heard this question, they told me that Kemal Bey had sent a message. I looked, and I replied to his message. I mean, he sent a kind condolence message, and I sent a thank-you message for the condolences. That is all there is to it. I mean, it's not that I didn't answer a call or didn't talk, I sent my thank-you message to the condolence message as soon as I saw it. My press friends also said to me, 'Kemal Bey sent a message, did you see it?' I turned on the phone after that and looked. The phone was already off all day today, now as I find the opportunity, we will try to turn on the phones and return other calls. We exchanged messages with each other."