Support from Ümit Özdağ for Boğaziçi students, important warning to the opposition: 'Against provocations...'

Zafer Party Chairman Ümit Özdağ, who was detained on charges of "insulting the President" and arrested for "inciting the public to hatred and hostility," issued a press statement from Silivri Prison.

Drawing attention to the Boğaziçi University Rectorate's dismissal of student club administrations and the banning of student protests, Özdağ issued important warnings to the opposition.

"There is a suffocating level of pressure occurring everywhere in the country," said Özdağ, adding, "The opposition must act with common sense and remain calm against these provocations, and resist attempts to criminalize them by drawing them into the streets. The solution is democratic resistance and opposition within the framework of the law. The moment a repressive regime is at its strongest is not when it increases its repression. If repression is increasing, the regime is weakening."

Özdağ's statement is as follows:

"The Boğaziçi Rectorate has dismissed the administrations of student clubs and banned student protests. There is a suffocating level of pressure occurring everywhere in the country. It is as if even the whistle of a pressure cooker is being soldered shut. These pressures suggest that a social explosion is being desired by some. Some are suggesting the “permanent elimination of the opposition” in their columns. Some are screaming, “We will take one of you every day, and all of you one day.”

The opposition must act with common sense and remain calm against these provocations, and resist attempts to criminalize them by drawing them into the streets. The solution is democratic resistance and opposition within the framework of the law. The moment a repressive regime is at its strongest is not when it increases its repression. If repression is increasing, the regime is weakening.

I say this as a political science professor. I say this as a political party leader who was arrested based on a single document/fake/false document produced by the Kayseri Police Department.

I am resisting the People's Alliance regime's application of enemy combatant law against us, the opposition, treating us as second-class citizens. However, the voters who vote for the AKP and the MHP continue to be my brothers and sisters. I am sometimes hurt by them. I am sometimes offended that they do not react more strongly to the fact that we are treated as second-class citizens, despite having served in the military together and stood guard together at the border. But they are my brothers and sisters. I know that they are not happy with our situation either, and that they say it should not be this way.

In summary, the opposition continues its peaceful resistance with determination, despite all the pressure and even provocations.

As for Boğaziçi University: Dear Boğaziçi University students, every day when you enter your university, enter thinking that you are smarter than your university's rector. Protest the rector only with a smile on your face. Know that he is on the side of those who are defeated by history."