Mansur Yavaş's 'rag' remark had been a topic of discussion: New statement issued

Ankara Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mansur Yavaş has issued a new statement regarding the speech he gave in Saraçhane recently. Stating that he is facing a perception operation, Yavaş used the following expressions: 

I am watching carefully those who are trying to politicize the speech I gave in Saraçhane by distorting it. My speech is very clear: I criticized the double standard regarding the right to protest, which is guaranteed by the Constitution.

I criticized the fact that the tolerance shown by the police at one rally was not shown in Istanbul's Saraçhane or Ankara's Kızılay, and that our youth were intervened against with pepper spray and pressurized water. This criticism of ours is about the differential treatment regarding constitutional rights. We want equal application for everyone.

Unfortunately, they have started a smear campaign again with a perception operation. Yesterday they called me a “PKK sympathizer,” today they are targeting me as an “enemy of the Kurds,” but no one should get their hopes up: We will neither surrender to these perceptions nor turn our backs on our people.

I have always stood against the mentality that equates our Kurdish brothers and sisters with terrorism. I am at the same point today.

Like every one of our citizens who make these lands exist, our Kurdish citizens are also the crown of our heads.

The strong support we receive in districts in Ankara where the Kurdish population is dense is a clear indicator that our people have embraced this understanding.

Likewise, our stance against a bloody terrorist organization like the PKK is clear; whatever we said yesterday, we are in the same place today.

If this country is a state of law, the constitution binds us all. 

Article 3 of the Constitution is clear: “The flag, the shape of which is specified in the law, is the white crescent-starred red flag.” 

This is our only flag, and its name is the Turkish Flag.

Finally, as I learned later, I wholeheartedly congratulate our police officer who brought joy to a disabled citizen. 

I would also like to express that we expect the same compassion from our security forces toward our citizens protesting everywhere in our country.

Mansur Yavaş also shared the entirety of his speech in Saraçhane:

The right to protest is a constitutional right. Even while this right is being exercised, we see that many difficulties are encountered. There is discrimination here as well. While all demonstrations were banned in Izmir yesterday, a party's rally was permitted. Likewise, yesterday somewhere in the east, while flags that are rags in my opinion were being waved, and as we saw on Twitter today, police were handing out cotton candy to those going to that rally. Truthfully, we expect the security forces to offer cotton candy to the youth here in the same way.

Many parts of the investigation are irregular. This country lived through the days when the leader of the terrorists was a secret witness while İlker Başbuğ was going to prison. I wonder who the secret witness is now? Are they Ekrem President's rivals? If you are going to conduct a corruption investigation, you must be equal there too. You will also put on trial the minister who sold disinfectant to his own ministry. You will not make a person involved in a billion-dollar corruption scandal at the Yunus Emre Foundation an ambassador. If you do not treat everyone equally, all these investigations you conduct will be trash. We say rights, law, justice. We are waiting for justice.

 WHAT HAD MANSUR YAVAŞ SAID?

He had given a speech in Saraçhane in support of Ekrem İmamoğlu, for whom an arrest warrant was issued after he was taken into custody. Criticizing the police's harsh attitude in the region, Yavaş had said, "The right to protest is a constitutional right. Even while this right is being exercised, we see that many difficulties are encountered. There is discrimination here as well. While all demonstrations were banned in Izmir yesterday, a party's rally was permitted. Likewise, yesterday somewhere in the east, while flags that are rags in my opinion were being waved, and as we saw on Twitter today, police were handing out cotton candy to those going to that rally. Truthfully, we expect the security forces to offer cotton candy to the youth here in the same way."

DEM Party Van Deputy Pervin Buldan had reacted to this statement by Yavaş. Buldan expressed her reaction by calling Yavaş a 'Fasho' (fascist).