Ekrem İmamoğlu meets with Tanju Özcan: 'He really wants me to return to the party'

It has been learned that Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu met with Bolu Mayor Tanju Özcan, who was expelled from the CHP.

The meeting reportedly took place 3 days ago, and in his first statement regarding the encounter, Özcan noted, "Following the meeting I held with Mr. İmamoğlu, he expressed that he desires for me to return to the party."

"SMILE AT TOMORROW"

Bolu Deputy Mayor Rasim Özdemir also attended the meeting in Istanbul. Sharing the visit on his social media account, Özdemir said, "Our Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mr. Ekrem İmamoğlu and our Mayor Mr. Tanju Özcan met in Istanbul. Everything will be very beautiful. Smile at tomorrow."

Bolu Mayor Tanju Özcan met with journalists at a program he organized in Bolu and provided statements regarding the meeting in question.

According to the report by Oğuzhan Eke from Köroğlu, a local newspaper in Bolu, Özcan told journalists, "Mr. Özgür's response to a young person's question in Düzce before the party congress... saying 'Tanju is my friend, I would even let him sleep in my house if necessary' is a very meaningful sentence. You don't let just anyone sleep in your house. You host people you trust in your home. This means the Chairman expressed how much he trusts me with these words. He used a sentence afterwards, but then said things like, 'I will also take the opinion of my former Chairman, I will ask him,' but he and his team will make the final decision. While making this decision—and I see that this decision is now positive, we are talking about it—he will evaluate who he will ask for an opinion. I did not take that matter to very different places."

Özcan described his view of İmamoğlu with the words, "Mr. İmamoğlu also really wants me to return to the party."

WHAT HAD ÖZEL SAID?

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel, in a broadcast he participated in recently, responded to a question about Tanju Özcan by saying, "I will also call my former Chairman (Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu) on the phone and ask. 'Tanju wants to come back, there were some things in the past. How is it viewed?' But I think Tanju Özcan will return and can serve as the CHP Mayor in Bolu."

In another statement he made about the subject before being elected as chairman, Özel had said, "Tanju is my friend, my brother. The Party Assembly will make the decision. The Assembly to be elected on November 5 will decide. If it were up to me, I would let Tanju sleep in my house; Tanju is our brother, but it is not right for a chairman to say something about a decision that the Party Assembly will make."