Bad news for Muharrem İnce! Resignations in Memleket Party over İmamoğlu

Ercan KÜÇÜK - 12punto.com.tr

In Istanbul, the province where the local election results are most anticipated, the high number of candidates is also drawing attention. Along with candidates from 22 parties and independent candidates, 30 names will compete to become the Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB). One of the parties that nominated a candidate was the Memleket Party. Berk Hacıgüzeller was nominated for the İBB candidacy.

In meetings held in recent weeks, no agreement could be reached between the CHP and the Memleket Party. The Memleket Party announced its İBB candidate in recent days. The nomination of a candidate against Ekrem İmamoğlu in the İBB race caused a crisis within the party. 15 people, including Deputy Chairmen who wanted İmamoğlu to be supported, resigned.

Memleket Party members announced their resignations with a press statement. The statement read by Deputy Chairman Osman Serkan İleri is as follows:

"The Republic of Turkey, founded with blood, sweat, and tears, and the Republican revolutions, brought to life with genius and foresight beyond their time, are today under a strong and dangerous siege from within and without.

It is impossible to speak of the existence of an environment of freedom in the Republic of Turkey anymore. An environment has been created where every media member who opens their mouth, every writer who moves their pen, every opposition element who voices their objection, and even the Chief of General Staff and retired admirals are tried to be disciplined through imprisonment. Fear is being instilled in segments that stand for democracy, secularism, and modern life so that they do not speak too much, do not stick their noses into every issue, and do not criticize the government.

The Republic of Turkey is now far from appearing as a state of law. Neither the President nor the upper and lower levels of the judiciary comply with the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights) and the corresponding ECHR (European Court of Human Rights) rulings, which we are obliged to follow based on our constitution, the fundamental text of our state. Even more dire; the hierarchical structure in the legal system has been deeply shaken. A chamber of the Court of Cassation, guided by the Palace, does not recognize the decisions of the Constitutional Court; furthermore, it attempts a judicial coup by filing criminal complaints against those who issued the decision. In Turkey, punishment is no longer based on the crime, but the crime is imputed based on the person. If individuals deemed appropriate for punishment by the government are acquitted of the imputed crime, another crime is immediately invented to ensure they cannot stay out of prison.

In Turkey, the compass of law is no longer the Constitution; the compass has been adjusted according to the Palace!

The economy of the Republic of Turkey has been destroyed. During this government's term, 6 zeros were removed from the Turkish Lira. However, due to inflation that has spiraled out of control as a result of inconsistent and mindless economic policies, one zero has practically been added back in recent years. The highest Turkish banknote is 200 TL; it corresponds to 6 Euros. In other words, when we give our largest banknote, they give us coins in return in Europe...

Education in the Republic of Turkey has been destroyed. Educational institutions have fallen into the hands of sects, communities, and religious profiteers; they have moved away from modern educational norms, and our children have been enveloped by dogmatic educational methods. The harassment and rape inflicted upon the innocent children of families without means in sect dormitories are being normalized. Turkish children are living their lives with dreams of living abroad.

The healthcare system in the Republic of Turkey has been destroyed. There are not enough doctors in the huge city hospitals built under the claim that we have leaped forward in healthcare; let alone doctors, there is not even enough surgical equipment to be found. Physicians are expected to see over 100 patients daily. Turkish citizens are living at the mercy of God!

The foreign policy of the Republic of Turkey has been destroyed. It has fought with all countries of the world, and Turkey has been condemned to so-called precious loneliness. Now, we are expected to rejoice because they shook hands with Sisi and followed a neutral policy in the Russia-Ukraine War. The know-it-alls of the government should excuse me, but history is teaching you the justification of the policies of those who founded and elevated the Republic, and the meaning of the phrase "Peace at Home, Peace in the World!" even if it is the hard way.

The security policies of the Republic of Turkey have been destroyed. Our country has been turned into a place where international crime syndicates run wild, and mafia barons become social media phenomena and expose the disgraces happening in Turkey. Our cities, especially Istanbul, have turned into a free-for-all. Our people are almost cheering because the current Minister of Interior is arresting the gangs that the previous Minister of Interior could never identify. Refugees, whose exact numbers cannot even be determined but are expressed in the millions, have permeated our cities and daily lives as the deepest existential threat to our country's future.

Urban planning principles in the Republic of Turkey have been destroyed. In order to collect a few pennies from citizens, the state has legalized illegal construction through zoning amnesties. The government watched the deaths of tens of thousands of our citizens in buildings it could not transform in time during the earthquake that struck 11 of our provinces. It watched as tens of thousands of our citizens died under the rubble, groaning from the cold, due to the measures it could not take immediately after the earthquake. Now, the President is threatening the victims of the earthquake region in Hatay by saying that if they elect opposition mayoral candidates, they will be deprived of vital services.

Are only our people's lives turned upside down? The government watched as our trees, wolves, birds, and insects burned and perished in forest fires.

Noble Turkish Nation!

The siege, the boundaries of which Mustafa Kemal Atatürk defined in his Address to the Youth, is being lived in practice today in every institution of Turkey and on every square centimeter of our geography.

With the awareness that breaking this siege is not an option but a necessity for us, we started a movement within our father's hearth together with our fellow travelers, primarily our Chairman Mr. Muharrem İnce. We voiced the mistakes we saw in our party, which we inherited from Atatürk, and what needed to be corrected. When we saw that our warnings were not taken into account over the years, we decided to establish a new political party. With the honorable struggle of all our friends who are here or not, with clean money, in cold buildings that we could not heat because we could not buy natural gas, we continued our struggle in every corner of Turkey with a dilapidated bus.

The election results and the distribution of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) that emerged after the election results revealed how right we were in our warnings before the general elections. Unfortunately, we are currently facing the most reactionary, most dangerous group of deputies in the history of the Republic of Turkey.

While establishing our party, we included the requirements of intra-party democracy, which we had worked hard to implement while in the CHP, in detail in our charter. At this point, we are happy to see that both candidates for Chairman who appeared before the CHP delegates have promised to implement a charter that will create an environment of intra-party democracy under similar conditions.

Today is the day to break the siege we have tried to describe. When the homeland and revolutions are under siege, one does not wait for a notification of duty; one takes duty! One does not think of position or office; one takes action!

Just as the heroes of the National Struggle did not wait for a notification to take duty, and rushed from all corners of the country and even the world to Anatolia to wear the shirt of fire... Just as the patriotic Ottoman pashas, who were given orders to arrest Mustafa Kemal, did the exact opposite and joined the National Forces (Kuvayı Milliye) with their armies... We also see the homeland and Atatürk's revolutions under siege and understand the duty that falls upon us.

Today is not the day to wage separate struggles against the government and its candidates who recklessly use all the means and capabilities of the state. Today is the day to unite our forces as all citizens who believe in democracy, secularism, modern life, and the rule of law, and to be the guardians of the Republic's revolutions and gains.

Today is not the day to disregard local elections, but the day to defend the last remaining bastions. Under all these conditions, we do not adopt the policies of our party, which announced that it would field candidates across Turkey and in Istanbul, which has special importance, in the local elections. We are resigning from all our duties and party membership in our party, for whose success we have worked since the first day, whose charter and program we wrote together, whose name and logo we determined together, whose dust we swallowed, and whose flag and pennant we hung. There are also friends among us who have already resigned during this process. However, we would like to underline that we are announcing our resignation decision after the local election candidate lists have been notified to the election board in order to prevent various negative interpretations. In other words, our resignation has nothing to do with any expectation of position, office, or political future.

Turkey's modern individuals have no tolerance for another failure! The Republic of Turkey has no tolerance for its gains being squandered one by one. With this sense of responsibility, we invite all political parties, non-governmental organizations, and citizens who consider themselves part of the civilized world to a total mobilization.

We would like to announce to the entire public here that we will fight with all our might for the success of the CHP candidates, who are the guarantors of the democratic regime in the Republic of Turkey, in the upcoming local elections and for the Republic of Turkey to be able to get rid of this tyrannical government."

"I NOTIFIED İNCE OF THE RESIGNATION LAST WEEK"

Osman Serkan İleri answered 12punto's questions.

İleri answered the question of why they resigned now, despite Muharrem İnce announcing weeks ago that they would not form an alliance with the CHP, as follows:

"We decided to announce our resignation decision after February 20, when the mayoral candidates were determined.

Because if we had announced such a decision earlier, they could have said 'they are bargaining with the CHP, their goals are different, they are after positions.' We decided to announce our resignation decision after all lists were submitted and our names were not seen there.

We have no personal expectations whatsoever. We took this move entirely for the success of the opposition. Hopefully, we will have a small contribution."

İleri also announced that he submitted his resignation to Chairman Muharrem İnce last week. İleri said the following:

"I notified the Chairman of my decision last weekend. I informed him that I do not agree with his recent policies and rhetoric. He makes very intense criticisms, especially regarding the CHP. I do not agree with these parts. I was born and raised as the child of a CHP family. I have always been an opposition figure throughout my life until today. I informed him that I would act in the same way this time as well.

We have never supported the Chairman's intense rhetoric regarding the CHP. There is a lack of ideology in the party. We are Atatürkists, we have 6 principles. A republican democratic ideology, which we can define as an ideology, is determined in the party's charter. I said at the second-to-last Party Assembly (PM) meeting that this is a somewhat amorphous rhetoric and that we cannot explain it.

We should continue our political struggle in a social democratic party. We will continue our future political activities in a social democratic party."

THE TABLE OF SIX WAS A WRONG ALLIANCE

Except for the DP, the components of the Table of Six announced that they would not support the CHP. What is your motivation for supporting the CHP?

"We are friends in bad times. We had joined the CHP together with our Beşiktaş district chairman. We became members when the CHP was out of parliament. Currently, there was an alliance that the CHP had wrongly constructed. It fell apart because it was wrong, and they all started blaming each other. We are the real CHP members. We are friends in bad times. Our current goal is this. Otherwise, Muharrem İnce is our master, our elder, our brother. There is no problem in our personal relationships. But politics is something else. We do not find it right to enter an election where it is clear that it cannot be won. It is clear that we cannot win. However, we could be the ones who make the other side lose. We did not want to be the ones who make them lose. We wanted to be the ones who support the CHP in its bad times."

The names who will resign from the Memleket Party and join the CHP are as follows:

Osman Serkan İleri

MYK Member Deputy Chairman

Mehmet Bahadır Gülsever

Former General Secretariat Communications Consultant (Son of Ertuğrul Gülsever)

Nihat Yıldırım

Istanbul Provincial Acting Chairman

Efe Sefer Yaman

Istanbul Provincial Deputy Chairman

Barış Mert Korkman

Istanbul Provincial Deputy Chairman

Levent Serdaroğlu

Beşiktaş District Chairman

Kaya Keskinkılıç

Büyükçekmece District Chairman

Murat Türk

Ümraniye District Chairman

Gökhan Çolak

Ümraniye District Secretary

Mehmet Levent Kazancıoğlu

Former MYK Member Deputy Chairman

Ali Tunçcan

Former PM Member

Umut Hanit Birben

Former PM Member

Ahmet Ekin

Former Istanbul Provincial Acting Chairman

İsa Metin

Former Istanbul Provincial Deputy Chairman

Erman Kocaer

Former Beşiktaş District Treasurer