Erkan Baş's 'jacket' message to the opposition regarding local elections

TİP Chairman Erkan Baş, while discussing the efforts they have made to achieve success in the local elections, complained that the opposition has not shown enough effort in certain regions and stated that the opposition is being lazy.

Baş made the following statements regarding the agenda:

Expecting different results by doing the same things is not something that suits us. In these elections, we say 'Change is essential.' Everyone is waiting for the other side to change, but we have decided to start the change ourselves. We said that the opposition as a whole needs to change.

It is a fantasy to expect to get rid of this government just by going to vote on election day. If we truly want to defeat the AKP, which has seized all the resources of the state, has the support of religious sects behind it, is fully supported by big capital, and is fully backed by international powers, it is impossible to defeat this government by saying, 'I will cast my vote and not get involved in anything.'

Those who say, 'Let someone come and save us from this government,' are dreaming. No one can save us but ourselves.

"WE ARE WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO COME AND SAVE US"

It is not easy to get rid of a darkness that has been sitting on top of this country for so many years through an easy path. I said this specifically in Çankaya because I know that the will to get rid of the AKP, the MHP, this People's Alliance, and this fascist government is very strong here.

Despite this, we need to give the correct answer to the question, 'Why can't we get rid of them?' We are doing it incompletely.

We are waiting for someone to come and save us. We are waiting for this country to change without us changing, without the opposition as a whole changing.

"WE HAVE FULFILLED OUR RESPONSIBILITY"

The number one person responsible for the situation the country is in is the Palace government, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the AKP, and the People's Alliance. Therefore, if we are heading into an election, our first goal ahead is to push back the AKP and the MHP. We will fight for them to be uprooted and removed from all areas that belong to the people but have been usurped by them. I can say that we have fulfilled our responsibility to the letter.

Elections will be held in over a thousand provinces, districts, and towns in Turkey, and we did not field mayoral candidates in 200-250 of them.

If we do not believe we can win, if the opposition will lose because of the votes we receive, and if the government will continue to keep its seat, as the Workers' Party of Turkey, we have not hesitated anywhere to fulfill our responsibility by saying, 'First the interests of our country, first the interests of our nation, first the interests of our people.'

"WE WILL WIN THE HEARTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE"

We are acting responsibly regarding the reclaiming of positions held by the government. We are acting responsibly regarding the opposition gaining new positions. But we are not surrendering to this status quo either. The Workers' Party of Turkey is fielding candidates everywhere that is thought to be 'already AKP's, already MHP's.'

We are fighting in the strongest way possible, regardless of whether we can win or not, so as not to abandon the working people, the poor, and the public to the hands of this AKP-MHP fascism, not to leave them to the mercy of those sects and communities; and to prevent the people from feeling alone and helpless and bowing down to those sects, communities, and fascist parties.

Maybe we won't win this election there, but we will win the hearts of the working people. Maybe we won't win this election there, but we will create cracks in those walls where those working people are imprisoned, and we will fight for the light to enter those places. We see this as a revolutionary duty. We want to express that we will not bow down to this government even in the places where they are strongest.

"WE HAVE COME TO HANG THE JACKETS IN THE WARDROBES"

The state of the working class and what they are experiencing has started to be discussed. If we are to carry a hope from March 31 to April 1, we are pointing to the birth of a new alternative in working-class neighborhoods. As I said, the opposition also needs to change; just as the AKP-MHP thinks, 'These places are our strongholds,' a laziness of the opposition has begun in many places like Çankaya. They think, 'The honorable people of this place won't vote for them anyway, so we can just hang our jackets here and win.' We have come to hang those jackets in the wardrobes in this election."