Özgür Özel's jab at Erdoğan: Our friends are striking fear into their panicked rivals in their thousand-room palaces

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu has been imprisoned at the Marmara Prison in Silivri for 200 days. Citizens gathered in Şişli to demand 'freedom for İmamoğlu'.

Following the reading of a message from CHP's presidential candidate and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who has been held at the Silivri Marmara Prison for 200 days, CHP Chairman Özgür Özel addressed the citizens and took jabs at AKP Chairman and President Erdoğan.

ÖZGÜR ÖZEL: YOU CANNOT DIVIDE THE CHP

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel spoke from Şişli, where the elected mayor was arrested and replaced by a government-appointed trustee.

"We said let's be in a symbolic place, just as we were in Saraçhane on the 100th day. We came to this square, close to the Çağlayan Courthouse, the center of these injustices, to challenge them," Özel began, before reading the poem 'My Shy Homeland':

"Lift your head, my shy homeland

We will add a few brushstrokes to your happiness

We will build honorable, beautiful tomorrows with all colors

Keep hope in your secret

These will heal your wound

Hold my hand, do not bow your head

You know,

No beauty will be experienced without you"

Özel continued his speech with the following remarks:

"Greetings to Mayor Ekrem, whom they attack with all their might because they know they cannot defeat him, but whose arm they cannot bend, and behind whom we all stand. Today we are here to hold our 60th rally together for the 60th time. On the bus today, we have your child from Balıkesir, Ahmet Akın. But our youngest, my chairman Hikmet Çetin, who says 'I am behind my Chairman, I am by my party's side' despite his age, is not here. Greetings to him from here.

There are threats and exiles against people, their children, and their relatives. There is a mentality that threatens them with their health and harasses them in front of their families' tears. It is time for this to end, for the indictment to be revealed, and for us to provide our answers. For exactly 200 days, they have been making up a lie every morning and trampling on it. We are waiting for that indictment. We are waiting not to be judged, but to judge."

"NONE OF THE DECISIONS OR INVESTIGATIONS HE HAS TAKEN ARE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONSTITUTION OR ETHICS"

The AKP can no longer produce politics. Erdoğan does not step into the ring; he does not trust his party. He said, 'I need another force to defeat them,' and sent his deputy minister to establish the AKP Judicial Branches. Today, the Chief Public Prosecutor at the Çağlayan Courthouse is not a Chief Prosecutor. According to the Constitution, if one enters politics or becomes a candidate, one cannot return to that position. Yet, he went from the courthouse where he served as a judge to Ankara. He became a deputy minister. He took on an extremely political role. Then he came here. None of the decisions or investigations he has taken are in accordance with the Constitution or ethics. Today, he is performing no duty other than the Chairmanship of a party's Judicial Branches. We will hold both him and the one who appointed him accountable for this oppression.

"ZEKERİYA ÖZ, WHO PREPARED AN INDICTMENT LIKE A BRICK, FLED LIKE A RAT"

The HSYK (Council of Judges and Prosecutors) says nothing to the Chief Prosecutor, who should not speak in a way that would influence the judge who will hear the case. Confidential investigation documents are being leaked to pro-government journalists. They have devastated our friends and tried to make them bow down. At the end of 200 days, they still haven't prepared the indictment and are sending information notes to the press. They say he is preparing an indictment like a brick. They said the same for the Balyoz and Ergenekon investigations. Zekeriya Öz had written an indictment like a brick. He called Kuddisi Okkır a 'safe,' and the Silivri Municipality had to bury him penniless. They called Ahmet Tatar an assassin; he took his own life, and it turned out he had no connection to it. They called İlker Başbuğ a terrorist and İlhan Selçuk a coup plotter, but what happened? They gave life sentences to Mustafa Balbay, Tuncay Özkan, and Mehmet Haberal. Mustafa Balbay, Tuncay Özkan, and Mehmet Haberal are walking the corridors of Parliament with their heads held high. Zekeriya Öz, who prepared an indictment like a brick, fled like a rat."

"THERE IS A COWARD WHO THINKS OF NOTHING BUT EVIL"

The Çağdaş Yaşam (Association for Supporting Contemporary Living) gave a scholarship to the child of the police officer who raided Türkan Saylan's house. So, it turns out that people like us are not like their enemies. Look at the kind of evil we are facing; tell everyone you see. When Erdoğan was elected with 23 percent of the vote among 5 strong rivals, countless investigations were opened against him. He was accused of bribery, extortion, and aiding a terrorist organization. Did the police ever go to his door one day? Did the police who went there say to Emine Hanım, 'Step aside, we came to take Tayyip'? Ask them, was he ever held at the Vatan Police Headquarters for a day? Was he ever tried while in custody? The Supreme Court of Appeals upheld his sentence, and he was called from the Pınarbaşı Prison. Was a photo of him with a police officer on his arm leaked? On one side, there is Türkan Saylan, who had the structure to educate the child of the police officer who searched her house for 5 years; on the other side, there is a coward who does to his rival what was not done to him 30 years later, who has a 17-year-old child's diploma canceled 31 years later, and who thinks of nothing but evil."

When you were being tried for bribery, extortion, and embezzlement, coming to power saved you. You took those who voted in your favor to the Constitutional Court. The nation sees that you are doing to our friends what was not done to you. You have fallen from the eyes and hearts of the nation. He said, 'In 1 month, they won't be able to look each other in the eye.' What an ambitious slander. Let's look into Dilek Hanım's eyes. You said 1 month, but 6 months and 20 days have passed. I am looking into the faces of tens of thousands in Şişli and saying: Our friends are innocent.

"ON ONE SIDE A SON-IN-LAW, ON THE OTHER A SON, AND ALSO TIKTOK-USER HAKAN"

They tried trustees and slanderers to pit us against each other. The CHP is standing tall. But on one side, a son-in-law, a son, and TikTok-user Hakan are eating each other. Those who run operations from the headlines, you cannot divide the CHP. We will not separate from each other. The CHP is the last fortress of this country. It cannot be captured.

They looked at the Global Peace Index in 163 countries; Turkey is 146th. Palestine is in a worse position than us. There has been a war for two years, they are experiencing genocide, 67,000 people have died. The peace there is the same as in Turkey. Iraq and Nigeria are in better shape than us. In the past, everyone suspected their phones were being tapped; now, ordinary citizens are afraid of being detained in the morning. We are organizing hope against the empire of fear; our friends, with their high morale in 12-square-meter dungeons, are striking fear into their panicked rivals in their thousand-room palaces."

İMAMOĞLU'S MESSAGE READ

CHP Istanbul Provincial Chairman Özgür Çelik read the message sent by President Ekrem İmamoğlu from the Marmara Prison in Silivri.

İmamoğlu began his letter, which was shared with the public by Çelik, with the words: "My dear fellow citizens, dear Istanbulites... Precious ladies, gentlemen, our youth, our children, my elders whose hands I would kiss... The honest, brave citizens of this city, of this country... I have been away from you for 200 days. I miss meeting you at the bazaar, at the market, and chatting. I miss listening to you. You are always on my mind, I embrace each and every one of you." Stating, "My colleagues and I, the representatives of the national will, our elected mayors, have been kept away from our duties and from you for months," İmamoğlu continued, "We are not being tried in a legal case. This is a political case from beginning to end. We are not being tried. They are punishing us without a trial to achieve their political goals. We are the representatives of the nation's political will. We are the representatives of the nation's demand for prosperity, happiness, justice, and freedom. They are afraid of us because they are afraid of the nation. There is a remedy for every trouble, but those who have the fear of the nation in them are helpless, are pathetic."

"YOU HAVE BEEN RESISTING WITHOUT WEARINESS FOR MONTHS AGAINST THE MENTALITY THAT PUT US IN UNLAWFUL PRISON"

Saying, "My beautiful fellow citizens; they are afraid of the nation, but you are not afraid of anything," İmamoğlu stated the following:

"You have been resisting without weariness for months against the mentality that put my brother Resul Emrah Şahan and our other precious provincial and district mayors in prison unjustly and unlawfully. You are standing tall for the Republic, democracy, justice, and freedom, and you are shouting just like Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk: Sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the nation... Sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the nation! Those who try to usurp the nation's sovereignty are dragging our country into an abyss with the economic, political, and administrative crises they have created. As the government moves away from democracy and law and becomes tyrannical, the economy becomes unfixable. The state is becoming unable to properly provide basic services such as education, health, justice, and security.

"WE WILL CHANGE THIS SYSTEM"

We will change this system, which is designed according to a single person, which has been producing crises since the first day, and which impoverishes the majority of the nation while enriching a handful of people. We will change this ruthless order that works for the interests of a handful of people, not the nation. We will establish a fully democratic regime that will be the guarantor of justice and freedom for everyone, everywhere. We will build a humane, fair order that will bring prosperity and abundance to everyone, where everyone sees each other as equal and equivalent. The goals of this difficult, painful, and arduous path we have embarked upon are very, very great. They are as great as the hopes, longings, and dreams of our nation.

"WE WILL SUCCEED WITH THE BROTHERHOOD OF 86 MILLION"

Against a handful of people, we will succeed with the power of 86 million, with the brotherhood of 86 million. To live freely, happily, and honorably in this heavenly homeland, it will not matter at all who we are or where we are. By the Bosphorus in Istanbul... On the banks of the Tigris River... In the steppes of Central Anatolia... In the plains of the Aegean... In the forests of the Black Sea... In the plateaus of the Mediterranean, we will share the same opportunities, the same possibilities. By protecting our common values and common responsibilities together, we will share the same life with its joys and sorrows. We will embrace each other and draw strength from each other. Everything will be very beautiful. My faith and trust in my nation are infinite. I love you all very much. Ekrem İmamoğlu. Silivri Dungeon."

FREEDOM FOR RESUL EMRAH ŞAHAN

Members of the CHP Istanbul Youth Branches participated in the rally by walking from the Şişli Atatürk House Museum to Mecidiyeköy. During the march, slogans were chanted for the freedom of the imprisoned Şişli Mayor Resul Emrah Şahan.