Akşener targets CHP: Those who are heirs to Atatürk are 'DEM-ing' today

İYİ Party Chair Meral Akşener attended her party's candidate introduction in İzmir and the project launch of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality mayoral candidate Ümit Özlale.

Speaking at the event, Akşener took a jab at the CHP, stating, "Those who are heirs to Atatürk are 'DEM-ing' today."

Akşener's speech is as follows;

"As a person, even if I get short-tempered at times, I have tried to digest many ugly things. Because I am a seeker. We set out with the claim that we would save our nation from this 'rowboat politics.' I am not a seeker for myself personally; I am a seeker on behalf of my nation. Therefore, I have digested and swallowed things, even if it happened from time to time. But I could not swallow a single word said about our Atatürk and his family. Because my father's uncle was our Atatürk's uncle. I heard such things from our Atatürk, from his mother, and from his sister. I could not digest any of the things said about our mother Zübeyde during this period. Those who are heirs to Atatürk are 'DEM-ing' today."

"Either you will say yes to the mentality that says, 'İzmir is mine, I could win even if I hung my jacket here, and you will accept whoever they want,' or you will say yes to our İYİ Party candidate Ümit Özlale, whom we can consider the grandson of Atatürk today, and whom you can be sure will do whatever is necessary in his name. You will change a mentality that puts Turkey in a difficult position. I hope I can explain myself and what my party wants correctly. This is the place where the Economic Congress was held, in 1923. İzmir is both where the first bullet was fired and the center of the economy. The people of İzmir have an obligation to protect this trust, if only for this reason. If the Greeks had come to İzmir and someone had said, 'What is the need, the great British and French are here,' and shaken hands with them, what would have happened? If the people of İzmir had felt that obligation, what would have happened? Under the conditions of that day, the logical thing was to accept the mandate. But what did he do? He went into the unknown. He went to Samsun, he went to Sivas, to Erzurum... He believed he would emerge successful from that unknown because he trusted his nation. He trusted the wisdom and discernment of his nation. It was very easy to shake hands. Today, without dragging on, I say that the vision of the İYİ Party is not to accept the mandate, and not to comply with the mentality that says, 'If you field a candidate, the other side will win.' Just as our Atatürk rejected what existed that day and trusted his nation, our nation that was writhing in hunger... To one, you are 'infidel İzmir,' to the other, you are 'obligatory İzmir.' We have to say, 'Get out of here.' I vouch for Ümit Özlale. Elect Ümit; if you don't like him, you can change him."