Breaking News... Historic words from Özgür Özel at the CHP group meeting: 'We are building our new party'

CHP's elected Chairman Özgür Özel made statements regarding the agenda at his party's TBMM Group Meeting.

Özgür Özel gave important messages about the new party in his speech.

Highlights from Özgür Özel's statements are as follows:

"I TOOK THE PODIUM WITH THE SADNESS OF A FAREWELL"

"There are very important expectations from this podium today. We will talk about that. I took this podium today with different feelings than ever before, perhaps carrying the sadness of a farewell whose time has come. We are all at a historic crossroads together. I did not come here today to make a historic speech, but to make a sincere speech that leaves behind sentences that note history, remind, and are entrusted. I entrust the historic speech to be made on the evening of the first election to history.

Today, from the atmosphere of this hall, to the dialogues we established in the streets where we walked out after the great injustices we suffered. We see that something is changing in this country, something is being rebuilt, from the neighborhoods of all our provincial and district chairmen, to the evening conversations of our families.

When everything is over, we will all remember. Let no one think that our attitudes and actions until today will 'come and go', 'be forgotten', 'the doer will get away with it', or 'the wind will take it, the flood will take it'. We will remember the oppressor as the oppressor, the oppressed as the oppressed, and those who were friends and those who were not, by not forgetting their attitudes in these days. History is recording; it will write everyone as they stand today!"

"THOSE IN THIS HALL ARE THOSE WHO DO NOT ACCEPT EXCUSES"

There is a system in Turkey that has been established, constructed, and imposed for years. There is a system that imposes unchanging actors on the nation. Our first awareness of this system, our first objections, may have a few different dates. But those in this hall, those who amplify this objection, those who put a spoke in the wheel of this system; are those who cannot digest or accept the election defeats of May 14 and May 28, and who cannot accept an excuse for failing to prevent those who have a problem with the Republic from continuing to govern this Republic in its 100th year.

THE PATHS PARTED THAT DAY

Those who do not see or hear these; those who say 'Well, actually there is no reaction, it will pass in three or five days' or those who say 'Sir, when I go on television, I will not be a presidential candidate again, I will not be a general chairman candidate again. I will pave the way for a democratic race, I will be the guarantee of a renewal in the party, a change, and putting a new opposition vision in front of Turkey' instead of saying; 'I did not become a candidate, I never was. If they show me, I will be, I will think about it when that day comes'...

Against those who say 'I will take the ship to a safe harbor and leave it. I will get through a local election, then I will look at what comes after. But I will also look at whichever side my friends say after that'; those who say 'This nation will not go to another local election with us. If we behave like this, this nation will not turn its face to us again. It will be the lowest turnout rate in history. Don't you see the polls? The party is continuing to decline at 13, 14 percent, a great disaster is coming. After the disaster in the local elections, this nation will have no hope left in the ballot box. We must do something at this point', those are the ones who entered two separate paths that day.

The path parted that day. While the path was parting that day; for emotional reasons, organizational reasons, or because they stood somewhere else in terms of the time of realization or the point of being aware of the issue, I saw everyone who came to the right place with the nation and the organization, seeing that the attitude, self-criticism, taking initiative, and the will for change of that day were correct, as valuable as those we were with when the first path was taken, when the first step was taken, and I continue to see them as valuable.

"THOSE ELECTED DID NOT COME FROM SPACE"

I see that standing in the right place in history is not about being the first to decide this, but that returning from the initial mistake if necessary is also such a great virtue. What matters is sincerity. What matters is standing in the right place. What matters is not selfishness, but instead of wanting something for yourself, sacrificing yourself if necessary, and paving the way for the country and the party.

Let's remember that day, let's remember that day. While those who said 'If the Republican People's Party changes, Turkey changes' were going to the change congress that day, a perception had been established, it was being granted and not discussed: 'Change is not possible with this delegate structure.'

To those who said 'Did change happen in Turkey? Is there an example in the history of the republic to date where two general chairman candidates competed and the incumbent general chairman lost in 100 years? It is not possible, it will not happen', I always said this, I always said it. I said: 'Yes, it is difficult. I cannot change the will of this delegate.' They turned and looked, 'We are general chairman candidates, how can you not change it?'

We cannot change it. But I said that this change would be realized by the delegate with what was whispered in their ear by the barber they visited before coming to Ankara, with what the 16-year-old female student living on the 3rd floor said to her neighbor when she was going up to the 4th floor of her house by elevator, with her spouse revealing the blessing of her own right while seeing her off at 6 in the morning, with the grandchild saying something to their grandfather, the child to their father. We entered the hall, a slogan that 3 people started in the hall but tens of thousands continued for hours dominated the hall, you are all witnesses: 'Delegate, listen to the voice of the street!' That day, when those ballot boxes were opened, because that delegate listened to the voice of the street, none of those elected came to this party from space. None of us were people who came from outside this party, on the contrary, we were its own flesh and blood children.

"YOU WILL PROVE THAT YOU ARE HARMLESS"

But I have things to say about this system. It is this: As the election progressed, as the election approached, they always asked us, they always asked. 'Is there anyone coming to talk to you from the state? Have messages come from such places, from deep places?' 'Did you reach a consensus? Did you agree on a commitment?' I always said 'no'. Then they said 'it won't happen'. They said 'They won't give you the party or this system'. They said 'Things don't work like that around here, you will make a bargain, you will make a commitment, you will prove that you are harmless, that you are within the system, only then will you come and play at being general chairman'.

"THE NAME OF THE PARTY CHANGES, THE DAY COMES AND THE ORDER CHANGES"

The name of the party changes, the logo of the party changes, the day comes and the order changes, those who fall apart unite, but they cannot divide us, this unity. Especially as I said, split in half like a watermelon; 60 to 40, 30 to 70... We are a whole. They can never break this whole because this whole is a whole that does not stand apart or think differently with a 103-year tradition. And my dear fellow travelers, you are all witnesses that after our congress, there were only 4 months left for the first local elections, only 4 months. Time was short, the road was long, and whether the change in the party would change Turkey, whether the work done here would be counted as self-criticism by the nation, and whether the nation would give a new credit would be determined there. In those 4 months, you are all witnesses that there were many slanders from here and there... In those 4 months, importance was given to women, importance was given to young people, importance was given to measurement and evaluation. The one closest to us, the one standing closest to us, was not put on that list even though they supported another candidate and did not appear in the poll. When someone closest to us wanted something, if there was no rationality, and even, and even, and even if everything was equal, the candidates who would give the image, hope, and promise of change were turned to. In a place like Izmir, while all parties in the history of the republic had elected 6 female mayors, 9 candidates were nominated and 8 were elected. 14 young candidates were nominated and 13 were elected. In a place like Izmir, 29 out of 31, and even in a place where it was said 'You will lose Izmir' after the election, such a miracle was realized. What was on hand was won, 65 percent of Turkey was won. The prices of minor mistakes were paid; they were paid in Kırklareli, they were paid in Hatay.

"THE CROSSROADS IS HERE"

By the way, that so-called deep state is coming again. In the meantime, those who say 'Will he compromise with us or should we deal with him?' are coming again. I came to speak openly, openly. He comes and says, he comes and says to you: 'Do politics centered in Ankara. Get off the bus' he says. 'Leave Ekrem' he says. 'The AK Party judiciary branches will tear him apart. Come here, there is cement, there is sand, there is mortar; let's mix it, let's put it in your hand, you pour the concrete over your friends. You are still young, you are 50 years old, you will sit at the head of the party for 30 years until you are 80' they say. Today, today we are at a crossroads.

The crossroads is here. The crossroads is; the new order, the black order politics where the AK Party could not defeat with its women's branches, could not defeat with its youth branches, had no hope from its main staff, excluded politicians and brought bureaucrats, am I going to hand over the honest, clean children and brothers of this country to this, pour concrete over them and sit in the intra-party power on that concrete, or will I fight for my brothers? It is the day that decision is made.

"OUR MARCH IS AN ANSWER TO THOSE WHO CANNOT DIGEST LOSING"

Our march is the answer to the question of whether we will give the main opposition—which they wouldn't stop at if they were in the main opposition—the government of tomorrow to a civil servant's child, a free boarding student, someone behind whom there are no lobbies, no interest groups, no connections in their past, no commitments for the future, by those who lost the congress and cannot digest it and those who lost the local elections and cannot digest it, or will we make a cooperation that complies with the dirty account of the deep state. Therefore, therefore... 61 days have passed since the nullity decision. The situation of those who say 'Let the holiday pass, the reaction will stop'; those who say 'We made a strategy before the holiday, it will be talked about for 3 days, it will stop on the 4th day, then one will pass and sit at the head of the party', the energy in the field, the expectation in the hall, and the hopes for the future of the country are exactly at this point, where this Gordian knot is; either we will sit on this Gordian knot and be silent, we will respond to the nation's conviction with embarrassment, or we will cut and throw away these Gordian knots one by one, we will pave the way for the country. Today is that day. I came out in those days. I suppose none of us had any doubt that Özgür Özel, who has been a group deputy chairman for 9 years, a group chairman for 3 years, who does not let anyone say a word against this party, its past, its history, its member, its soldier, who does not let dust settle on it, would do what is necessary to do the best of the struggle from that day to this day; legally, politically, physically, in the hall, in the courts, and on the street. I don't trust myself this much on this. I received 1333 votes in the last election. 1333 votes! The highest general chairmanship vote in history. I said; I received 1333 votes, I said I don't count three of them for myself. There is no such vote, there is no such unity. This vote, which came from that congress from the neighborhood to the district, from the district to the province, from the province to the headquarters with re-established ballot boxes in 2025, has a meaning. This vote is not a vote given to Özgür Özel's person or team. This vote is the product of the party's need for unity and solidarity, this party's march to power, and the solidarity shown by those who share this belief by showing their votes, casting their votes into the ballot box, only with a strong unity, without separating, by standing together.

"500 DELEGATES WHO VOTED FOR KEMAL BEY WANTED A CONGRESS"

The 60-person PM cannot fall below 40, it falls to 23. They gather with 23. The law says: 'Immediately a congress!', 'I won't hold a congress!'. Continue the struggle. We get signatures from 1040 friends. 500 of those 1040 friends are delegates who voted for Kemal Bey in the last election, that is, the last election we competed in. 3 years later he says 'Don't do it Kemal Bey, we gave it to you that day but we are party members Kemal Bey. If you don't hold a congress in this party, disaster will come Kemal Bey, come let's hold the congress, let us say the decision' he says. He doesn't listen to the 500 delegates who voted for him and doesn't hold that congress either. Upon this... 2023 election; we competed, we won, no I was going to win. Well, you are not here, you are not here, you are not here, there are 4 certificates of election. Now I ask: I am not here, Fatma won; I am not here, Ayşe won; I am not here, Emine won. Hey, you are getting a decision from the AK Party here for your Emine who won the last congress from this congress of yours and changing the result of the last congress.

There are provincial chairmen here. 74 provincial chairmen. Among them, 56 of them are those who were provincial chairmen in the previous term and in Kemal Bey's term. They became candidates again in 2025, they were elected again, they were elected again. In 2025, Trabzon made the decision, Burdur made the decision, Hakkari, Edirne, Hatay, Sinop made the decision, in 2025. What do they have to do with 2023? Coming and dismissing 38 of the 2025 chairmen because they are not doing 'nullity' today, because they said 'We were with you that day but today we are with Özgür Bey', because they said 'We believe in this party's march to power, we are not this or that, we are Republican People's Party members'.

"TO GET ERDOĞAN ELECTED FOR ONE MORE TERM..."

Then he says: 'Friends, don't leave the party, stay here, sit here, look, I will start a congress soon at the end of September, I will finish it towards April next year'. The palace wants to watch us eat each other for 7 months, fight in the neighborhoods, and so on. I am eager for the role given to me, come you also stand against me, let's get into an intra-party wrestling, for the AK Party to get Erdoğan elected for one more term, let him mind his own business. There is no such looting! There is no such looting! Let everyone know this, let everyone know this, to CHP buildings... For example, you will appoint a deputy secretary general to the party; someone who, when he could not be a candidate in Adana in the last local election, became a candidate from another party against us, and said everything that came to his mouth to Zeydan Karalar, will now come and take over the management in the party. You will appoint a provincial chairman to Bilecik; there will be someone who makes the female mayor of Bilecik miserable with every slander. You will appoint provincial chairmen to the provinces; they have been against us in the election, they have fought, they have gone to another party, they have supported another candidate, they have come to take over the party with pavilion bouncers... Then these... They will start an election from the neighborhoods. I am telling the young children of this party, instead of writing them as delegates at uncertain addresses determined by them in neighborhood elections, 'Go there and try to be a delegate, if they don't beat you, if they don't hit you, if they don't break you, fight, let's struggle for 7 months, let's be disgraced to Turkey.' I said it last week from here, I said it knowing what I was saying. I say it one more time, I say it to those who say 'I am a party member', I say it to those who can say 'I am a CHP member'..."