Erdoğan's 'money tower' jab at Özgür Özel: 'When they hear tower, they think of...'

President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made significant remarks at the 5113 Earthquake and Social Housing Key and Title Deed Delivery Ceremony held in Gaziantep. In his speech, Erdoğan, who leveled harsh criticisms at CHP leader Özgür Özel and opposition parties, cited Istanbul Airport and security towers as examples, stating, "When we hear the word tower, we think of works presented to the service of the nation. But when Özgür Özel and his mayors hear it, they only think of money towers."

In his speech, Erdoğan criticized the opposition's performance, stating, "We are facing such an incompetent mentality," and noted that the municipalities are unable to manage the public properly. Furthermore, touching upon the problems in İzmir and other metropolitan cities, Erdoğan said, "The public's patience will run out with this mentality."

WHAT HAD HAPPENED?

A notable response had come from CHP Chairman Özgür Özel, who was targeted by MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli during his group meeting.

Taking the podium hours after Bahçeli, Özel said, "Mr. Devlet wants me to talk about these," and tore up the piece of paper in his hand.

Saying, "I will talk about these in spite of Mr. Devlet..." Özel displayed placards regarding the minimum wage, as well as retiree and civil servant salaries. Afterwards, wanting to show how much purchasing power had fallen, Özel lined up a suitcase full of money on the podium, saying, "You have turned money into paper!"

AKP President Erdoğan stated the following in his speech:

"If we desire to leave a prosperous Turkey to our children, we must stand firmly on our feet. Look, this situation is not only valid for foreign policy, only for defense, or only for the economy. Building strong and durable cities is also an inseparable part of this. We cannot allow our beautiful homeland, our Anatolia, to be left forlorn or victimized. With this understanding, we stood tall like an unshakable fortress alongside our nation during the disaster of the century. We quickly started the construction of the century."

JAB AT ÖZGÜR ÖZEL

“Last week in Maraş, we delivered the keys to our 155,000th home to our citizens. There is no such thing as empty talk here. This is not a government like that of Özgür Özel and others who talk but do not take action.

Now we are in Gaziantep Güneyşehir. We are delivering the keys to our 5113 earthquake and social housing units to our rightful brothers and sisters. I wholeheartedly congratulate all our institutions, especially our Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality and TOKİ, the contractor firms, and all my brothers and sisters from workers to engineers who contributed to the construction of these residences.

With this project, we will both address our earthquake victims' longing for a safe home and raise living standards in the region with social housing. God willing, by the end of 2024, we will have delivered a total of 201,688 independent units in 11 provinces, 24,191 of which are in Gaziantep. By the end of 2025, we will hopefully complete the delivery of a total of 31,317 residences and workplaces in our Gaziantep, and 452,983 independent units across our entire earthquake region.”

“WE STAND BEHIND ALL THE PROMISES WE HAVE MADE”

“I would like to express this here specifically: We are not just building houses in the earthquake region, which has turned into the world's largest construction site. We are also building brand new living spaces with schools, health centers, bazaars, markets, and green areas. We are renewing the infrastructure of not only the places destroyed in the earthquake but all our cities in the region. We continue to revitalize the economy, strengthen production, employment, and trade in the earthquake region, especially in our industrial and trade city of Gaziantep.

Turkey has both the power and the political will to do all of this at the same time. We stand behind all the promises we have made to our citizens in the squares. We have not disappointed the nation at any point during our 22-year rule. We have not been like the main opposition, which distributes promises generously and then wipes the slate clean once they take office. May our nation keep its heart at ease. God willing, we will complete this greatest housing and urbanization mobilization in our history in the best possible way.”

"WHEN THEY HEAR TOWER, YOU SEE THAT THE ONLY THING THAT COMES TO THE MINDS OF ÖZEL AND HIS MAYORS IS MONEY TOWERS"

“We are producing great works to serve our nation, working like ants. We don't even need to describe the pathetic state of the opposition anymore. There is neither vision nor project. They say, 'Whatever is in the dervish's mind is on his tongue.' When we hear tower, we think of the 90-meter-tall tower at Istanbul Airport. When we hear tower, we think of the towers we built to protect our Mehmetçiks from the attacks of separatist scoundrels. When you hear tower, you see that the only thing that comes to the minds of Özel and his mayors is money towers. Other than money towers, they have no achievements they can show as our work. Instead of explaining the robbery committed under the pretext of a concert, he has come out and is talking about towers of money.

Their minds and thoughts are on filling their pockets and squandering the nation's money. They cannot even operate bus services properly. The Gulf of İzmir has been left to its fate. Another has turned traffic that was flowing 6 years ago into a Gordian knot. When it comes to the Social Security Institution, they make excuses. We are facing an incompetent mentality that falls apart wherever you touch it. May God give patience to the citizens living in the municipalities managed by them.”

WE HAVE TAKEN IMPORTANT STEPS IN MANY AREAS

“We are working with all our might to make Gaziantep an exemplary city worthy of the Century of Turkey with a new generation municipal approach. We have taken important steps in many areas, from transportation to green spaces, from education to cultural activities. With the Düzbağ drinking water project, which is Turkey's largest clean water investment with a total length of 135 kilometers, we have provided our city with source-quality drinking water. We have successfully completed our Gaziray metro project, which is 25 kilometers long in total, with 5 kilometers being tunnels.

We are soon completing our domestic and national train set consisting of 32 carriages with the financing of our Metropolitan Municipality. Hopefully, we will open it for our citizens' use in the coming months. We will also soon put our 25 bridge junctions and 128 bridges into service. We are also completing our 4-million-square-meter Metropolitan project, where 50,000 of our brothers and sisters will be employed in 10,000 workplaces, in the near future.”

GAZİANTEP-MERSİN TRAVEL TIME WILL DROP TO 2 HOURS AND 15 MINUTES

“Construction work on the Gaziantep-Osmaniye-İncirlik-Adana-Mersin high-speed train project is ongoing. When completed, the travel time between Gaziantep and Mersin will drop to 2 hours and 15 minutes.”