DEM Party reacts to operation against CHP municipalities: This is a coup

DEM Party Co-Chair Tülay Hatimoğulları, accompanied by a party delegation, visited CHP Chairman Özgür Özel at the CHP Headquarters. The meeting took place at 15:00 at the CHP Headquarters. Hatimoğulları was accompanied by Deputy Co-Chairs Özlem Zengin and Mahfuz Güleryüz, and Central Executive Committee (MYK) member Emiraali Türkmen.

"A BLOW HAS BEEN DEALT TO THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE!"

Hatimoğulları stated the following:

"The purpose of our visit to the CHP today is to express our get-well wishes and feelings of solidarity regarding the coup against the will of the people that was unfortunately carried out again yesterday morning with a dawn raid.

We hope that the judiciary will reverse this mistake within these few hours and that the detained mayors will be released.

We see these operations as a continuation of the trustee (kayyım) mentality.

When we woke up to this news yesterday, we carried out our scheduled programs, but we called for an extraordinary MYK meeting for today. We evaluated these detention processes. I believe we are the political party that can understand this best. We are a party whose municipalities have had trustees appointed to them for three terms.

I want to underline that these operations today are political operations. If they have evidence, some investigations can be initiated. However, we do not accept turning these into a political operation by using them as a cover. A commission should be formed, the independent judiciary should be involved, and a study should be conducted where not only opposition municipalities but also ruling party municipalities are investigated.

I would also like to add... And we also insistently suggest that the trustee management of the municipalities where trustees have been appointed should also be investigated.

Today we are talking about a peace and democratic society process. Witnessing these operations in these days when peace and disarmament are being discussed is not good for Turkish society. We see the question 'Is this how democratization will happen?' rising from everywhere.

While we are talking about a process that has been chronic in this country for 100 years, the fact that we are talking about these operations weakens the belief in democracy. We want to address the mentality that carries out these operations once again. These operations undermine the peace process. These operations do not just mean putting a mayor in prison; they mean the elimination of the right to vote and be elected.

We reiterate our call. The mindset that carries out these operations today must abandon them."

Özgür Özel expressed the following:

"I wholeheartedly thank our Co-Chair, President Tülay, for their solidarity. I also thank the Adana, Adıyaman, and Antalya organizations separately for the local solidarity visits made to Adana and our other municipalities subjected to the operation yesterday. As the President stated, there is no one left in Turkey who does not believe that these operations are political operations. In polls, there are voters who say they believe it, around 25 percent. But those voters who say they believe it are the categorical voters of the People's Alliance (Cumhur İttifakı). If Mr. Tayyip says 'two times two equals five,' the categorical core voters say 'Yes, two times two equals five.' And on the opposition side, we also have a base of voters who support us categorically even if we say something wrong. Apart from this, no one who looks at it normally and reasonably, and listens to the issue with a conscience rather than political engagement, believes that these operations are corruption operations. Everyone believes that these are political operations. As the esteemed President reminded, they suffered a lot from trustees. A world of trustees was appointed. If I am not mistaken, trustees were appointed to almost all the municipalities they won in the last term, except for four. At that time, Mr. Tayyip, with today's self-confidence, would come out in front of the televisions, cameras, and you, and say: 'They are being detained because they are sending money to a terrorist organization. They are being detained because they are providing financing for terrorism. Rest assured, the issue here is not a political thing regarding the right of Kurdish citizens to choose local administrators. It is happening because it is like this.' Now this process has started, what did Mr. Tayyip say? 'The process will proceed and the trustee practice will remain as an exception,' he said. What does exception mean? Very rare, one in a thousand. So, all cases other than that exceptional state were political, right? Since Mr. Tayyip decided this. What does Mr. Tayyip know about what will happen in the next process or what happened before? This means that all the processes where trustees were appointed before were political. He says, 'If distance is covered from here, the trustee practice will turn into an exception.' Therefore, one must see clearly and plainly. Everything that is done; the persecutions inflicted on the personal rights, families, and children of the mayors, all of these are political acts carried out with great lack of conscience. Their crime is defeating Mr. Tayyip's candidate. Our crime is making our party the first party. Ekrem İmamoğlu's crime is having been a presidential candidate with the votes of 15.5 million people. The risk is that Mr. İmamoğlu defeats Mr. Erdoğan by a wide margin in all polls. They are doing all of this for this reason."

"THEY WILL MOST LIKELY BE REFERRED FOR ARREST"

"Today, our friends are giving statements, and then they will most likely be referred for arrest. I said it this morning too. Abdurrahman Tutdere is a completely different name. They are accusing someone whom Adıyaman made a candidate on its own, forced to be a candidate, forced to elect, and who does not even sleep to contribute to Adıyaman. They are going to smear someone who has won the hearts of all of Adana, like Mayor Zeydan. Or rather, they could not produce consent for this in Istanbul, they could not even convince their own voters. Now they are trying to do this by spreading it to Anatolia and trying to make people believe that this is a big organization and that it has arms and legs in other cities. Adana is a convenient place for them here. They can easily pit us and DEM against each other in Adıyaman and Adana. If DEM does not react to these operations, they will send another message to DEM, and if DEM reacts to these operations, they will send another message to Turkish society in their own way. And the question he is currently facing to do this to Mayor Zeydan is: Aziz İhsan Aktaş worked with the Seyhan Municipality not in this term, not in the previous five years, but when he was the Mayor of Seyhan before that. They are trying to accuse him through this, and they have not found any evidence regarding a tender from eight years ago. That file has been examined many times, deemed appropriate by the Court of Accounts (Sayıştay), and it is a point where there is no problem. But the issue is this; they are telling Aziz İhsan Aktaş 'Give a name.' And they are looking back, 'Eight years ago in Seyhan,' they say. And now they have detained our Mayor for this, they are trying to arrest him. There is no more to be said from here. There are things to be done from here on. We are in a calendar regarding that. At these very minutes, our Party Assembly has gathered and is waiting for us to open the meeting. We stated yesterday that the Republican People's Party (CHP) is now in a new process and that no matter how difficult the next process is, the resistance and resilience will be even higher. Let me state it once again today. We thank the esteemed President, the DEM delegation in her person, and the DEM Party for the solidarity they have shown."

"THEY ARE TRYING TO CREATE A PARALLEL UNIVERSE"

Özgür Özel made the following assessment regarding journalist Timur Soykan being referred to court with a request for arrest:

"Friends, Timur Soykan's tweet; 'The regime declares that it no longer has any concern about convincing society of corruption operations.' That is, he says, 'There is corruption and I am declaring that I no longer have any concern about proving it.' And he continues, saying; 'Let defeating the AKP in the election be a crime in the laws. Thus, get rid of the burden of acting as if there is still a judiciary.' Because of this, they are referring Timur Soykan for arrest. And what is the article? The crime of publicly disseminating misleading information. When this law was being discussed last year, as the entire opposition, we said: 'This is very dangerous and will put journalists in jail.' What were the AKP members saying? You all remember. 'This has nothing to do with the press. Sir, an earthquake is happening, news is being spread that a tsunami is coming. People are running away from their homes. Theft is happening at that time. We need to take a precaution against this,' they were saying. Are they taking precautions against those who lie that a tsunami is coming, or against those who post this tweet like Timur Soykan? We knew what the real intention of those who said these things under the record without shame or embarrassment last year was. We were also explaining it to society. Now, thanks to you, everyone sees that a journalist like Timur Soykan. What did Timur Soykan say? 'Let defeating the AKP in the election be a crime, let everyone be comfortable,' he said. You don't do a municipal operation for nothing. You put Ekrem İmamoğlu in Silivri for the crime of defeating the AKP, and we don't gather on Sunday for nothing like this with 20 cameras, two Chairmen, delegations, and so on. Because if the regime knows that it puts those who defeat it in jail, either you don't become a candidate, or if you do, you end up in jail. The regime they established is such a regime. Is it a lie? Is Timur Soykan the first to say this? Have you put any evidence in front of us for 108 days to prove that this is a lie? If we had seen that Ekrem İmamoğlu's crime was anything other than defeating Erdoğan, everyone would be sitting at home today. As a journalist, he tweeted this, now they are going to put Timur Soykan in Silivri. Then someone will come out. They will say 'Timur Soykan is inside because he tweeted, because he is a journalist.' For example, our friend who asks this question will post such a tweet. They will put him inside too. Because they will expect us to believe this: They will say 'Timur Soykan is inside not because of his journalistic activities, but because of other crimes.' They created such a parallel universe. They are trying to create such a parallel universe. They want us all to surrender to this mediocrity, to this stupidity. And they are constantly trying to do this: We do everything, and some people show consent."

"WOULD YOU COMMIT THIS INJUSTICE?"

"I felt this very closely in a few events that happened in the last period. I would like to tell this story to the very valuable voters of the AK Party and MHP from here. Hz. Ali is on one side, in Kufa. Muawiyah is in Damascus. Someone from Kufa enters Damascus with his male camel in his hand. Someone from Damascus takes this as an opportunity, says 'The camel is mine, give it,' and takes it from his hand. They get into a fight. The public gathers, the matter reaches Muawiyah. He looks, he says, 'Call everyone.' 10,000 people gather. 'O people of Damascus. This brother of ours from Damascus says that this camel is female and belongs to him. This brother of ours who came from Kufa says that the camel is male and belongs to him. Is this camel male or female?' he says in front of everyone's eyes. The people of Damascus shout 'It is female.' 'Does the camel belong to the Kufan or the Damascene?' 'It belongs to the Damascene.' He gives the camel, he goes home. Muawiyah goes, leans into the Kufan's ear and says, 'Now go tell that Ali, there are 10,000 men in Muawiyah's hand who will say a male camel is female just because he says so, tell him to watch his step,' he says. Now I am addressing the AK Party and MHP voters: 'Would you commit this injustice?' Will you call a male camel female just because Mr. Tayyip says so? Will you waste someone's property, belongings, honor for someone else's political future just because Mr. Tayyip says so? They look at you as a community that commits injustice because Muawiyah told them to and stands behind it, and will give us anxiety. We don't look at you like that. I take refuge in the conscience of the AK Party and MHP voters, who are the shining people of Anatolia, from this evil. This is my word."