New statement from Özgür Özel regarding Burcu Köksal's remarks

Continuing his local election campaign, Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Özgür Özel visited his party's Eskişehir Provincial Headquarters.

Özel was accompanied during his visit by Aylin Nazlıaka, Chair of the Women's Branch and Deputy Chair responsible for the Ministry of Family and Social Services, Eskişehir Deputy Utku Çakırözer, Eskişehir Metropolitan Mayoral Candidate Ayşe Ünlüce, and district mayoral candidates.

After CHP's Eskişehir mayoral candidates signed the Equality Policy Document in Local Governments, Özel delivered a speech following the ceremony.

Starting his speech by commemorating International Women's Day on March 8, Özel stated the following;

"Upon the suggestion of our Women's Branch, we wanted to spend March 8 in a symbolic city. Today, they will continue the steps of transforming Eskişehir into a modern republican city—an oasis in the middle of the steppe and a legend of urbanism—with the favor of the people of Eskişehir, who will hand over the Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality on March 31 to a young republican woman who has long worked with a local government legend like Yılmaz Büyükerşen. They will continue this great success. On March 8, International Women's Day, we have a policy document that we symbolically signed yesterday with our Bilecik Mayoral Candidate Melek Mızrak Subaşı. A short while ago, all our mayors and mayoral candidates in Eskişehir signed that document. The document is based on the principle that all segments of society benefit equally from municipal services. It states that they will formulate their policies, projects, and budgets in a way that is sensitive to gender equality. It states that the participation of women and men in decision-making processes will be ensured in a balanced manner. And on the other hand, the mayors who sign this document will produce policies in all the services and actions they perform, observing gender equality, equal representation, and the togetherness of women and men in society."

Addressing Burcu Köksal's remarks regarding the DEM Party, which have dominated the agenda, Özel continued his speech as follows;

"In recent days, unfortunately, even though the strongest aspect of CHP municipalism is equality, some circles are making an effort to attribute an expression used during an election speech to all CHP municipalities. This document you see in our hands is, as you know, a preparation that has been in the works for months and was planned to be signed today. Not a single word of it has changed. However, it includes the equal benefit of all segments of society from municipal services. We underline this once again, and because it is today, we underline it with a purple pen. First and foremost, gender equality, CHP municipalities provide equal service regardless of the ethnic origin, sect, political preference, or gender of the person they are facing. We thank all our mayors who have signed and committed to this. As of last night, 350 of our mayors had submitted their signatures. We expect all of them to reach us by this evening. Our Women's Branch and our Women's Branch Chair will provide you with the necessary information on this matter. Because we are in a city like Eskişehir that is sensitive to women, women's labor, and women's participation in management, as I expressed earlier at the opening of the monument of gratitude to our mothers and women, we thank Yılmaz Büyükerşen and his team for realizing such a city with great cooperation, regardless of gender. I wish success to all our mayors who will manage Eskişehir with this sensitivity from now on."