Ümit Özdağ: 'One has clung to one of Öcalan's legs, the other to the other'

Victory Party Chairman Ümit Özdağ spoke at his party's 'No amnesty for the killers of our soldiers' rally held in Karaman.

His remarks targeted the People's Alliance (Cumhur İttifakı) partners, President Erdoğan and MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli.

Özdağ spoke at the rally as follows:

"Prof. Dr. Ümit Özdağ: When I arrived in Karaman this morning, I first visited the martyrs' cemetery, as I do in every province. There, we prayed at the graves of our children who were martyred while fighting the PKK terrorist organization. Let us name some of them: Lieutenant Halil Demirörs, Adnan Çelik, Ramazan Ünay, Tuncay Özçoban, Mustafa Ahmet Demir, Muhammet Ali Mevlit Dündar, Hakan Yılmaz, Mehmet Kızılca, Mehmet Uygun, Ahmet Taşer. Now, their heroic struggle for the homeland is being denied, and so-called peace negotiations are being held with the terrorist leader Abdullah Öcalan.

They say Öcalan will leave the prison in İmralı and get married under the 'right to hope.' One of the propagandists of this process on television says, 'He is human too.' They are vile, they are soulless, they are bloodless. Are you not ashamed of our martyrs who, on the orders of Öcalan, had to leave their fiancées, pregnant wives, young ladies, and babies in the prime of their lives?

STATE WISDOM

A new immoral psychological operation is being carried out against the Turkish nation. Supposedly, the release of the murderer called Öcalan and bringing amnesty to the PKK is 'state wisdom.' If this thing they call state wisdom existed, would the July 15 FETÖ coup attempt have happened? Would hundreds of our citizens have been martyred?

If there were state wisdom, could FETÖ-affiliated pilots have bombed the Police Special Operations headquarters and martyred dozens of our special operations officers? If there were state wisdom, could the PKK have ever seized our districts? If there were state wisdom, would we have given 793 martyrs to take our own districts back from the PKK?

Let us not forget the psychological operations they carry out under the guise of state wisdom. With the Annan Plan in 2003-2004, they tried to destroy the TRNC and hand Cyprus over to the Greek Cypriot side. In those days, the AK Party tried to persuade the Turkish public to accept the Annan Plan through a major psychological operation. They also said that Cyprus was an economic burden on Turkey. They did everything but curse the late national hero Rauf Denktaş. If what the AK Party wanted had happened, today Turkey would be struggling to even float a rowboat in the Eastern Mediterranean, let alone search for natural gas.

PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS

Then the Ergenekon-Balyoz psychological operation began. They arrested hundreds of generals and colonels based on an organization that did not exist. The leader of the terrorists who massacred 33 of our unarmed soldiers by firing 55 bullets at each of them was presented as a witness in court against the Chief of General Staff of the Turkish army. Then what emerged? That there was no such organization as Ergenekon, and that the real terrorist and espionage organization was FETÖ, with which the AKP collaborated.

Another psychological operation was the negotiation process with the PKK that began in 2009. They set out saying, 'Let mothers not cry.' They attacked everyone who said that one does not negotiate with terrorism, calling them 'those who feed on blood.' Yet, between 1984 and 1999, the Turkish army, police, gendarmerie, and our village guard brothers had given the PKK terrorist organization a hard time through a heroic struggle. Öcalan had been captured and locked up in İmralı. Armenian, Greek, and European support had been to no avail, and the PKK had been brought to its knees. During the negotiation process with terrorism, all these sacrifices and heroism were practically thrown into the trash. We commemorate our heroic martyrs with mercy. We convey our love and respect to our dear veterans.

AKP politicians and bureaucrats, you will remember that during the first negotiation process, they gave the PKK confidence by saying, 'The army, police, and gendarmerie will not intervene; if they do, tell us, and we will hold them accountable.' They abandoned the patriotic people of the Southeast to the mercy of the PKK. The PKK stockpiled weapons in district centers right before the eyes of the soldiers and police. We warned them. They said, 'You don't understand.' Yes, because you understood so well, we ended up losing 790 of our gendarmerie and police special operations children as martyrs in the Trench terror. Hundreds of our young soldiers and police were wounded. Many lost limbs due to Improvised Explosive Devices.

Again, a negotiation process with Öcalan and the PKK has begun. This time, it started more openly and more aggressively. Bahçeli invited the terrorist leader Öcalan to speak at the DEM group in the Turkish Grand National Assembly. A Parliament where Öcalan comes is no longer a Parliament; it loses its honor. This Parliament is the 'Veteran Parliament.' It is not a place where terrorists can enter.

We are against, and will continue to be against, an agreement that will make the Turkish nation blush and humiliate the Turkish state. They say that in exchange for his release from prison, Öcalan will make the PKK lay down its arms and ensure the PKK dissolves itself. They claim they have no other demands. They say Öcalan will end terrorism in exchange for his freedom.

This is a big lie. Neither will Öcalan call on the PKK to lay down its arms and dissolve the organization in exchange for his release from prison, nor will the PKK accept this.

The truth is this: There will be an amnesty for Öcalan. However, the amnesty will not only pardon Öcalan; all PKK members, whether in prison, on the mountains, or in the cities, will be pardoned. There is more. It is said that PKK terrorists will be given jobs in municipalities within the framework of efforts to reintegrate them into society. However, such an amnesty cannot only cover the PKK. The amnesty to be enacted will also cover FETÖ, ISIS, and other terrorist organizations. We hear that in recent days, FETÖ members lying in Sincan prison in Ankara are celebrating. With a general amnesty, all drug dealers, street-level pushers, murderers, and rapists will be released.

Öcalan wants Article 66 of the Constitution, which defines the Turkish nation, to be changed. It is demanded that the Kurdish nation also be added to the Constitution. Öcalan also wants Article 42 of our Constitution to be changed to allow education in Kurdish. The changing of these two articles, 42 and 66, will eliminate the meaning of the articles of our Constitution that are unchangeable and cannot even be proposed for change. Despite this, we hear that Öcalan has brought up demands for changing the first three articles of the Constitution.

ÖCALAN'S 7-POINT STATEMENT

As expressed in the 7-point statement that Öcalan had written for the DEM delegation that visited him in İmralı, he is demanding a new paradigm, that is, the establishment of a new state of which he is also one of the founders. He talks about the right of peoples to self-determination. He threatens Turkey by pointing to the events in Gaza and Syria. He talks about transforming Turkey. PKK terrorist organization leaders also say, 'We will not make our natural rights, such as autonomy and constitutional recognition, a subject of discussion.' In short, politicians and pro-government propagandists are lying to the Turkish people on television.

Let us assume for a moment that the PKK's demands are accepted. You know, Devlet Bahçeli said in May 2023, 'Many things will change in the coming period. I hope Turkey does not change.' Let me tell you what will change:

22 provinces in Turkey's Southeastern and Eastern Anatolia regions will become an autonomous or federal Kurdistan. Turkey will be divided into politically and administratively fragmented regions like Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Iraq. Turkey will become a country where ethnic quotas are created in politics and bureaucracy, like Lebanon. Turkey will turn into a country like Iraq where state duties are shared according to ethnicity and sects. The goal of the PKK, the DEM, and the powers behind them is not the happiness of the Turkish nation. Their goal is to create a weak Kurdistan that holds water resources in the Middle East through our blood and tears, and to make this Kurdistan an ally of Israel. The issue is not a human rights issue. The issue is to divide our country. We will not allow this.

'TURN BACK FROM THIS MISTAKE'

I want to address the People's Alliance from here; Mr. Erdoğan, Mr. Bahçeli, turn back from this mistake. Turn back from this mistake, or you will all be buried under Öcalan. Do not think that 'the nation is hungry and miserable anyway, struggling to feed itself, so they won't care about Öcalan or anything.' You will not play with this nation's state. It may go hungry, but it will not let anyone play with its state.

TUIK announces the poverty rate in our country as 13.6 percent. That is 17 million 821 thousand people are poor. However, the poverty rate in our country is not 13.6 percent, but 39.3 percent. Meat does not enter the homes of 4 out of every 10 people. There are children who have forgotten the taste of meat. 15 percent of our citizens are so poor they cannot pay their rent. 15 percent cannot heat their homes. The massive increase in inflation cannot be controlled.

'IS ALI ERBAŞ PASSING THE TEST?'

While the country is in this state, Erdoğan goes to New York with 6 planes. Ali Erbaş, the President of Religious Affairs, who paid 20 million for his Audi vehicle, says, 'Eat bread, it keeps you full.' Ali Erbaş's daughter, Merve Safa, says, 'I reject the discourse that people are hungry. Our Lord tests some with wealth and some with scarcity.' Ms. Merve, is your father, who is being tested with wealth, passing the test?

On top of all this burden, we are paying for bridges we do not cross, electricity we do not use, hospitals we do not go to, and airports whose locations we do not know. We are covering the medicine, treatment, education, and food expenses of millions of Syrians we do not know. We are paying the expenses of millions of Syrians we do not know. Enough is enough, everyone should return to their homeland. If we do not wake up as the Turkish nation, we will become increasingly poorer. Your plate and your meal will get smaller and smaller. The 'gang of five' and the AKP's bigwigs will become increasingly richer.

We must stand up as a nation and turn all of Turkey into a parliament. The streets are the homeland, the squares are the homeland. We will say 'no' to those who threaten our homeland from the homeland.

If Erdoğan thought his votes were high and that he would win the upcoming election, would he enter into such a risky game that would make people say, 'I hope Turkey does not change'? The People's Alliance, which is seeking the DEM vote because it cannot solve economic problems, has clung to Öcalan like a drowning man clutching at a snake.

Erdoğan and Bahçeli have clung to Öcalan, one to one leg and the other to the other, for constitutional change. They think this nation will say yes to this. This nation will take its revenge on you in such a way, you will receive such a slap from the Turkish nation that you will not know what hit you.

Like other parties, we will not take refuge in the comfortable seats of parliament or the pleasure of its cheap restaurant. We will eat onions and bread, we will travel all over Turkey, we will turn all of Turkey into a parliament. We will use our constitutional rights. By organizing rallies province by province, district by district, we will shout to the whole world that the Turkish nation says 'no' to this disgraceful negotiation process and will not share its state with a terrorist organization.

We do not have television channels. We do not have private jets. However, we have a great belief in the Turkish nation and a determination to struggle. As long as you stand behind the Victory Party, we will spread this struggle to all of Turkey."