Statement from 61 former CHP deputies on İmamoğlu: 'The rights of the righteous will not be denied'
A statement has been issued by 61 former CHP deputies regarding the detention of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the CHP's presidential candidate hopeful and Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB). The statement alleges that the government has initiated these operations to cover up its failures and calls for the rule of law and democracy.
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In a statement regarding the detention of İmamoğlu, 61 former deputies from the CHP argued that Turkey has transitioned to a one-man regime and drew attention to the increasing pressure on the opposition in recent times.
The former CHP deputies stated that such practices are fundamentally aimed at covering up the economic crisis and the government's failures. The statement expressed that these events have created concern among citizens regarding legal security and fundamental rights.
The statement criticized AKP Chairman and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, using the following expressions:
''We are watching with sadness that in our country, which has a democratic tradition of over 100 years, the attacks on the opposition that have occurred since the transition to a one-man regime are beginning to coincide with the 'methods used by political powers to eliminate their opponents,' which are occasionally encountered in underdeveloped countries.
We see that at the root of these attacks lies the desire to make our people forget the economic crisis and the AKP government's failure in managing the country, while they struggle in poverty, and on the other hand, the desire to silence and intimidate the opposition. However, regardless of the reason or desire for which they were carried out, we believe that what has been experienced by many district mayors, municipal bureaucrats, and public personnel, along with Ekrem İmamoğlu—the elected Mayor of our world city Istanbul, where 16 million of our people live, who declared his candidacy for the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey on March 18-19 and whose participation as the sole candidate in the CHP candidate poll to be held on March 23, 2025, has been finalized—is of an unacceptable nature and can never be reconciled with the principles of democracy and the rule of law.
We would like to express that these events also cause our citizens to worry about their legal security and fundamental rights.
As administrators and parliamentarians who have taken responsibility at various levels of the CHP in the past, we hope that in this environment we live in, these attacks on the opposition will not reach the unfortunate dimension of targeting the institutional identity of the CHP as well.
We warn; there is no power above the national will in democracies. The national will will evaluate these events in the best possible way.
No matter what anyone does, the rights of the righteous will not be denied, and our Republic will be kept alive forever by its children who believe in democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.''