Critical summit from CHP following operations: 'If we forget the character assassins, we are dishonorable, if we forget, we are dishonorable'

Following the operations recently conducted against CHP-run municipalities, an important meeting was held to evaluate the situation and determine the strategy to be followed. Developments, particularly following the detention and arrest of Ataşehir Mayor Onursal Adıgüzel, had strengthened the view within the CHP that action needed to be taken.

Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Yavaş's words, "We wake up to an operation every day. We cannot just watch this. All our mayors are now anxious. We need to make a collective decision and announce this decision to the whole world," had resonated widely among party members.

Following these calls, the CHP leadership gathered in Ankara today with the participation of metropolitan, provincial, district, town, and metropolitan district mayors. At the meeting, which started at 11:00 AM at the Party Headquarters, mayors at different levels came together in five separate sessions to evaluate the ongoing operations. During the discussions, the roadmap to be followed against the interventions targeting CHP municipalities was discussed in detail.

The results of the meeting are expected to be announced to the public at the closing program to be held at 3:00 PM. It was reported that in addition to CHP Deputy Chairman Gökan Zeybek, Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Yavaş, Mersin Metropolitan Mayor Vahap Seçer, Eskişehir Metropolitan Mayor Ayşe Ünlüce, and Edirne Mayor Filiz Gencan Akın will deliver closing speeches in the 600-person hall. CHP Chairman Özgür Özel is also planned to share the decisions taken at the end of the day and provide information to the party and the public.

It is stated that the results of today's discussions and the determined roadmap will be discussed in detail at the Party Assembly meeting to be held on Monday, April 27. Furthermore, Özgür Özel is expected to evaluate similar issues with CHP deputies in groups.

IMPORTANT STATEMENTS FROM ÖZGÜR ÖZEL

Highlights from CHP Chairman Özgür Özel's speech are as follows:

"My dear friends, my dear mayors, who carry the flag given by the nation from all four corners of Turkey, who are the greatest carriers of an unexpected great victory at the local level with very high vote rates in their towns, districts, provinces, and metropolitan cities 2 years ago, each of whom we are proud of individually, whom we love as human beings, and whose contributions to our march as comrades we appreciate, welcome all of you. I greet you all with respect.

It was exactly 2 years ago. A few months prior, we had emerged defeated from the election that was attributed the most importance in Republican history, the one we wanted to win the most. Our faces were down, morale was low. Our voters had reached the point of being resentful of the ballot box.

For those who expressed that they would not vote in the upcoming local elections, this reached 60% and according to some polls, 70% for Republican People's Party voters. The voters were experiencing a major emotional detachment.

In those days, as Republican People's Party members, we showed first to ourselves, then to each other, and then to our nation that we are a party of difficult days, that we can get up from where we fell, link arms, draw strength from each other, and instead of leaving these lands to their own fate, we can write history again 100 years later, just as it was 100 years ago.

Within our party, a new administration was formed as a result of an election that produced results and maturity unseen in Republican history. But we set out with an understanding of administration that feels loyalty and shows respect to the past, does not speak ill even if it hears ill, knows how to swallow its pride, gives confidence to its friends, and knows how to remain silent instead of giving ammunition to those who are not friends. Could the nation not do the self-criticism it expected of us, that is, the change in our party? This was the whole subject of curiosity.

On the path we set out on that day, as my dear mayors emphasized a moment ago, we cared deeply about trusting women, trusting youth, trusting science, conducting measurement and evaluation, and ensuring that the candidate we present to the citizen is a good person who is in their heart, represents them, and whom they can trust, and who knows the spirit of that city. By asking the youth, women, and the nation, by conducting polls, and through interviews conducted by hundreds of our friends assigned by our party on the ground, we strove to understand the cities, hear their voices, and determine candidates who would respond to their expectations. When we came to power, reminding that Ecevit and his friends brought our party to first place in two local and two general elections in the 1970s, we expressed with great courage, without saying "How can a 5-month-old administration make the party the first party?", with great self-confidence, that if we could not put forward the same claim and achieve it, we would not remain in administration.

This self-confidence we showed was called trust in ourselves, trust in this hall, and also our belief that our friends who are not in this hall, who have been torn from their spouses, children, mothers, and fathers, who are in 12-square-meter cells in Antalya, Bursa, Istanbul, and various parts of Turkey, are good people, are the right candidates, are honest people, are brave people, and that they will work for the people and the country, and that they are the right people who will protect the rights and interests of the country first, then their city, and then their party. We held 105 rallies.

Under the hail, under the rain, under the wind, with many difficulties, but on top of the bus, we wrote another page of history with each of you. We went to the places we grew up in, our friends went to the places we couldn't go, our voice went, we reached out via television. But we showed a sincere effort mutually. "You on the ground, we from Ankara in general". We vouched for you, you vouched for us. And when the voters rushed to the ballot boxes in the afternoon, the televisions giving general news were saying: "There is a significant drop in voter turnout".

We had foreseen this 7, 8, 10 months ago with fear, but we were very sure that the drop had nothing to do with us. We immediately made phone calls. We looked at the ballot boxes where the Republican People's Party was very ambitious and where the AK Party was very unambitious from all four corners of Turkey. News came from all over Turkey at 12:00 or 1:00 in the afternoon: "Ours have either voted or are in line, the AK Party is nowhere to be seen".

As the ballot boxes were opening, in defiance of that necessary but heart-wrenching message sent every year when slightly bad results came in, we prepared the message before the boxes opened, and sent it to more than 150 thousand ballot box officials the moment they opened.

This time the message was not this, not this: "They are opening the boxes where we are weak first. You are receiving bad news from everywhere. Do not lose your morale, do not leave the ballot box".

We did not send the message 'Do not leave anywhere without getting the wet-signed report'. In defiance of that message, as the boxes were opening, we told the ballot box officials, "You will receive very good news from all over Turkey in a little while. Do not get carried away by joy and celebrations and neglect your duty. Do not let go of the end of the wet-signed report".

Our story started like this, friends. Our story of marching to power started like this, and the fears and evil intentions of the bad guys in front of us started like this. When we took the stage that night, at 8:30-9 PM, we had a surprise for TRT, we knew how to say, while saying the Republican People's Party is Turkey's first party on TRT screens after 47 years, turn around and don't honk horns, don't play drums, don't gloat, don't upset the loser, we have a march to power starting tomorrow, don't stay up too late.

As we said in the speech here that evening, we underlined heavily that the key the nation put in the pockets of men and the bags of women was not the key to the municipality's safe, door, or the city's golden key, but the key to the journey to power of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's party 100 years later.

And since that day, in this hall where we gathered you, in every meeting, we explained to you that the issue is once again for the Republican People's Party to be in power locally and generally, and at this point where we are the first party of Turkey, possessing 65% of the society and 80% of the economy, we must never, ever get carried away by arrogance and must work by showing how we will govern Turkey from the local level.

We built structures, set up tables, formed working groups, held meetings, and together with you, we showed a great march, a service-oriented understanding of municipalism that sees the citizen's problem, hears their voice, and solves their trouble to everyone in Turkey who voted, we did not make those who voted regret it, we made those who didn't vote regret it.

If only we had voted too, so we would have a Republican People's Party municipality here too. That march, as my mayor expressed a moment ago, bore fruit 1 year later with this determination. I was curious, and so was Mr. Tayyip. We were curious, and so was the Justice and Development Party. Satisfaction surveys were conducted. We measured the nation's satisfaction with you at 59%, and the AK Party measured the public's satisfaction with Republican People's Party municipalities at 61%.

And after 8, 9, 10 months of service until that day, following this satisfaction that was visible in the field and reflected in the numbers, unfortunately, Erdoğan, who had no hope left from his women's branches, youth branches, or main staff, established a judiciary branch presidency, as I always tell his party. From this judiciary branch presidency, he decided to go after the Republican People's Party municipalities together. They made someone who had signed very controversial decisions in the past, I won't count them one by one but each of which was overturned 15-0 in the Constitutional Court, caused compensation from the European Court of Human Rights, and who took political decisions that could not be made to anyone else but himself, a Deputy Minister as a reward, and made him the Chief Public Prosecutor of Istanbul.

He became the Chief Public Prosecutor of Istanbul, but he was tasked with attacking the Republican People's Party with all his might, ignoring geographical boundaries, authority, law, legislation, or the constitution. He started the first evil by attacking the Esenyurt Municipality, which is Turkey's largest municipality, thank God it is among us today, with a population exceeding a million, by putting Mayor Ahmet Özer in prison, supposedly associating him with terrorism and appointing a trustee. Since that day, one by one, and including our presidential candidate, by taking away the freedom of Mr. Ekrem İmamoğlu...