CHP leader Özgür Özel speaks at trustee protest rally

Nagihan YILKIN

A large crowd gathered in Esenyurt Square following the arrest of CHP's Esenyurt Mayor Ahmet Özer and the appointment of a trustee to the municipality.

The rally, called by the CHP, was also attended by the DEM Party, TİP, SOL Party, ESP, and various non-governmental organizations.

Special operations police, riot police units, armored water cannons (TOMA), and detention vehicles were kept on standby in the district square.

Furthermore, CHP Istanbul Provincial Chair Özgür Çelik, who delivered the opening speech, called for an early election.

'WHAT DID YOU WANT FROM ESENYURT MUNICIPALITY?'

DEM Party Co-Chair Tülay Hatimoğulları stated the following:

"We absolutely do not accept the trustee. What did you want from the Esenyurt Municipality, which had achieved a city consensus? Won't they turn around and ask you what kind of internal operation you are talking about?"

Speaking after Hatimoğulları, Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu said, "They consume lies and slander like food," and added, "Whoever wrote this indictment needs to go to a psychiatrist immediately."

REFERENCE TO MINISTER TUNÇ

İmamoğlu continued his remarks as follows:

"Our gathering today is truly distressing. It is a struggle to seek justice. I know that the country's diversity is here today. Esenyurt is a big heart. We are facing a government that is chasing one dark move after another, caught in a suspicious process every day.

Now they are constructing a dirty game over Esenyurt. They declared our Mayor Ahmet Özer, a scientist I have known for many years and who was elected with the participation of all of Esenyurt, a terrorist for flimsy reasons, arrested him, and handed Esenyurt over to a trustee.

Haven't they been trying to take back what they lost at the ballot box since 2019 through the judiciary? What they are doing today is the same thing. They want to put the nation under pressure now to win and dominate the upcoming election, but you will not succeed.

I looked at the claims presented as evidence of a relationship between our Mayor Ahmet Özer and terrorism.

You would laugh if you saw them.

I apologize to our lawyers, but whoever wrote that indictment needs to go to a psychiatrist immediately.

It is incomprehensible, far from reason and reality. The prosecution says; there is an item they define as the most important phone call showing a link to a terrorist organization. Özer calls someone named Mehmet Kaya to offer condolences for his mother. How is it a product of reason to take a word about his late mother out of context and fabricate a terrorist organization connection from it?

When an acquaintance of yours loses their mother, do you not offer condolences because their sibling is a member of a terrorist organization? For example, if the current Minister of Justice's mother—may she live long—were to pass away, would you not call?"

REMINDED OF THE SOLUTION PROCESS

"What will we do then about the public officials who started the solution process? We are facing a mindset that spends every day with a lie. It is nothing more than protecting their government, which is mired in corruption and lawlessness.

All the allegations against our mayor are fabricated and baseless. We never accept them."

'I WILL DEAL WITH YOU'

"Is their job to label Mayor Ahmet Özer a terrorist through the judiciary, arrest him, and then say 'go clear your name'?

First, prove that this game you are staging is law. There is no such law. First, prove that you are a government that respects the will that comes out of the ballot box.

I say to 86 million citizens, 'my people,' look, everywhere. This government should first prove its love and respect for this nation. Did they say 'either you are with me or you are against me'? Those who say these things are bad people. We are here for brotherhood and love to overcome all evil.

They are ignoring the powerful legacy left to us by these lands.

They will want conflict and chaos. They will not think about the peace of the country. We will not surrender to this.

I will deal with you, it is that clear. We will never surrender this republic to that oligarchic mentality.

We will end this period with these zigzags that tire our republic and our country, and whatever we achieved yesterday; we will achieve tomorrow as well. We will send them home."

'WE OPENED OUR HANDS WITH SINCERITY'

"You will not be able to bend the wrist you could not bend in the elections with bans and trustees. Those who see their own will above the will of the nation will no longer be able to remain in power in this country.

There are millions of our citizens who will overthrow the coup attempt against the voice and will of the nation. We do not seek the solution to our problems in secret calculations; we seek it in our common values.

We seek it in giving everyone their due and in social consensus. We did not hide a secret contract or the stick of threat and blackmail in our hands; everything we did was open because we know that the people we open our hearts to are our dear citizens. We opened our hands with trust, unconditionally and sincerely."

CHP LEADER ÖZGÜR ÖZEL: THEY BROKE THE STATE'S DOOR WITH A SLEDGEHAMMER

Following Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor (İBB) Ekrem İmamoğlu, CHP leader Özgür Özel took the stage.

Highlights from Özel's speech are as follows:

"I wholeheartedly congratulate all the people of Esenyurt who are here today, regardless of their ethnic origin, Alevi or Sunni, standing shoulder to shoulder to protect their elected mayor and, in his person, their own right to vote.

Those who seized the right to vote in Esenyurt yesterday tried to seize the municipal building and the freedom square in front of the building through a trustee.

They tried to shrink the area with unlawful orders to the police and make you and us look weak while we were protecting our will. I said we would fill the largest area in Esenyurt.

A first is happening here. There is an injustice done to the mayor of a political party in the square, but there are flags and feelings of solidarity of all the political parties whose names were listed one by one just now.

We have overcome many troubles in 101 years. Coups, coup attempts, terrorist attacks... But we did not collapse. They confronted us with all kinds of evil; we did not surrender. Today, we are one, we are alive, and we are all together against this coup attempted by a government that disrespects the national will and its big, small, visible, and invisible partners.

Ahmet Özer is an academic, a community leader, and a public official. He has been performing these duties for years, and when determining a candidate in Esenyurt, of course, a political party must determine the most accurate candidate by taking into account the voters' preferences in that city. That is what we did, and in the end, we presented Ahmet Özer to you. With the vote of one in two people, Ahmet Hoca won with your votes in Turkey's largest district.

Esenyurt is shouting, saying Mayor Ahmet is not alone.

The process experienced yesterday bears all the signs of a complete setup. While Mayor Ahmet could have gone if he had been invited to the municipality he goes to every morning at eight-thirty, they broke down his door at 5 in the morning.

His wife opened the door in a panic; instead of explaining, they pushed past her. They went to Özer's bedroom and woke him up personally. They did this on purpose. That bad, immoral, and illegal treatment there will eventually return from the conscience of this nation once again.

They went to the municipality simultaneously and broke the door of the state's municipality with a sledgehammer. Lawyers who are municipal council members arrived and wanted to witness the search, but they were not let in.

There was no lawyer present either at the house or at the municipality. They even showed a book draft that Mayor Ahmet saw for the first time as a justification while he was being arrested. He met with this person, he met with that person... They say we have been listening for 10 years. If we go back 10 years to see who talked to a terrorist; there wouldn't be a single person left in the AKP who isn't a FETÖ member.

A concert was held in this square, a singer came. Sir, bringing this singer is a relationship with a terrorist organization. If the work that singer did is terrorism, what will we do about the Esenyurt District Governor who listened to him?"

'AKIN GÜRLEK, YOU ARE ERDOĞAN'S ZEKERİYA ÖZ'

"Neither art, politics, a condolence call, nor a phone conversation from 10 years ago can be associated with terrorism...

They are removing Özer from office with dawn raids, hoping for setups left over from FETÖ. They say; 'We will solve terrorism, there is no Kurdish issue.' If there is an issue, it is asked to the owner of the issue. If the issue is asked to the government, not to those living it, there is a dictatorship there.

Erdoğan said yesterday at noon that Ahmet Hoca would be arrested. They gave the order, they are planning the form. I am calling out from here; Akın Gürlek, who came and carried out this operation with Mr. Erdoğan's instruction, do you remember Zekeriya Öz? FETÖ was giving him the orders too. When the day came, he ran away like a rat. You are Erdoğan's Zekeriya Öz, Akın Gürlek. Akın Gürlek is not a prosecutor or a jurist. He is an executioner who has no conscience or reason, who drowns even prisoners in penalties, but is toured from courthouse to courthouse so that justice is slaughtered. You will be held accountable to this nation."

'ERDOĞAN, TURKEY IS READY, ARE YOU READY?'

"Erdoğan, don't run away, come and face us. We are ready for an election. If you have the courage... Mr. Erdoğan, I hear a voice, do you hear it? You gave your word with your instruction, you made the person who is the partisan district governor in Beyoğlu a deputy governor yesterday and gave your word. Look what they are saying? They are saying 'Government resign!' We are aware of these dirty calculations. You want tension so that the citizen cannot talk about their troubles. Inflation is high, your concern is to create tension. Resorting to FETÖ-style setups, of which you are the heir, is due to your helplessness. They want to feed on separation, conflict, and tears. We will talk about the nation's agenda and stand by the will of the people. There is clearly a struggle for seats there, a give-and-take calculation. The nation's calculation will spoil the seat calculation. Those who eye the nation's bread, those who push retirees, minimum wage earners, farmers, and workers into poverty, those who leave women, children, and babies insecure are now trying to cast a shadow on the will of the people. No one has any patience left for this much evil to be done to the nation. There is no turning back. No one should remain silent against those who do these evils to our beautiful country; everyone should have their say. We will win together. There is no salvation alone, either all together or none of us, says this square.

To stay in power, there is a need for a constitutional amendment. First, they sent Kurtulmuş. Can there be a constitution with someone who does not comply with the constitution? While Constitutional Court decisions are ignored, while ECHR decisions are not complied with, while almost all leaders elected by the Kurds are inside, what constitution? I met with Demirtaş. Neither his imprisonment is legal, nor Can's, nor Kavala's... We are ready for everything to stop the tears of mothers and to end terrorism; we are not for secret bargains or constitutional amendments.

They have found a new way to change the constitution. They write on social media; 'DEM Party, CHP, and the opposition should withdraw from Parliament.' Suppose that 130 deputies, just us, or a total of 200 deputies said 'sine-i millet' (returning to the people). 'Sine-i millet' leads to a by-election. A by-election is the first Sunday 90 days later. You don't enter, the AKP enters and adds to its existing 320 and gets 400 deputies. It doesn't need you, me, or anyone else, and it changes the constitution and does what it wants. 'Sine-i millet' does not mean an early election. It is the trap of the AKP and MHP, let no one fall into this trap. We are all obliged to do whatever is necessary for an early election. As the chairman of the CHP, I promise; with the power of all institutions and the organization, I am holding our group meeting tomorrow right after the visit to Özer in front of Silivri Prison. Afterward, we canceled the CHP's meetings planned in other cities. We will talk about everything that needs to be done for an early election.

Also, I held an MYK (Central Executive Board) meeting in Esenyurt today. We will work with our deputies, and the next day we will gather our party assembly. All decisions taken are now aimed at forcing an early election and getting rid of them. We have different colors, our flags. We are Turkey all together. The Turkey alliance won Turkey. In spite of those who want to pit this country against each other, without ever surrendering to this mediocrity, to this evil mind, we will build our common future by exposing this helpless and vile plan. Erdoğan, we are ready. If you have the courage, I challenge you! Come and face us!"