Flash instruction from Özgür Özel to party members! 'I have no such dream...'

Following the CHP's victory in the March 31 Local Elections, discussions regarding presidential candidacy have begun in the public sphere.

Speaking on Halk TV, CHP Chairman Özgür Özel made statements regarding the current agenda.

ÖZEL'S RESPONSE TO THE CANDIDACY QUESTION

Speaking about the presidential candidacy debates, Özel responded to the question, "Did you instruct your party officials, 'The presidential candidacy is not on Turkey's agenda today, no one will talk about it'?" as follows:

"Yes, we did. Let me state the speech I made directly: We took over the management of the CHP and came to power; this party is all of ours. It is our duty to continue the right things we did in the past, but we must also abandon the mistakes made together. Our biggest mistake is that candidates and alliances start being discussed the day after the election. The CHP is a social democratic party; the CHP will hold tea and retiree rallies. The CHP will describe itself this way, as a leftist party. On the other side, a nationalist democratic party will describe itself that way. When the day comes, if an alliance is needed, you turn and look not after the election, but a reasonable time before the election. If we are going to share something, we share it accordingly; no one infringes on anyone else's rights. Let's see this once. Let us show our nation a constructive opposition with our own identity."

"I HAVE HAD ENOUGH" 

Talking about candidates the day after the election is something that will alienate potential candidates, put current candidates into a different psychology, and occupy the nation for nothing. I have had enough; there is a strange mindset that wants to repeat this mistake from the last election. The candidacy debate is always being opened. I told my friends. Whether a question comes or not, whether it is to praise me or not… I have no goal or intention to be a presidential candidate.

I have one intention: If I said, as I did on the evening of this election, that Atatürk's party is the leading party in the first general election of the second century of the Republic, then I have reached my greatest goal. The lights of the CHP's district buildings in 973 districts will stay on until morning. I do not want anything for myself.

I want to make the CHP the ruling party in these elections, let us make a CHP member president, and put this country on the path bequeathed by Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. If I cannot make the Republican People's Party the ruling party, I will come out here that night and resign, and I will quit politics that day."