Özel's response to Erdoğan's 'Until my time comes': 'Until the people want it'

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel made statements following his visit to the Anahtar Party in Ankara. During the press conference held by the two leaders, regarding President and AKP Chairman Erdoğan's controversial remark, 'we are here until our time comes,' Özgür Özel responded by saying, "No one objects to Erdoğan living. But we do object to minimum wage earners and retirees suffering in misery until his time comes."

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel met with Anahtar Party Chairman Yavuz Ağıralioğlu. The two leaders made statements following the meeting. 

The statements made by Özel following his visit to the Anahtar Party are as follows:

"I wish them success with great sincerity. For many years, Turkish politics had been continuing with the understanding that the Justice and Development Party won elections, and having won, it had absolved its past and secured every right regarding the future.

That was until the March 31 elections. In the March 31 elections, as much as our success in becoming the leading party after 47 years, we experienced a process where the Justice and Development Party tasted defeat for the first time under this name, where Tayyip Erdoğan tasted defeat for the first time with his party, and came in second for the first time. Since that day, the voters have waited 47 months for the patience we showed for 47 years.

There were 47 months until the start of the presidential or general election calendar from the local elections. But he could not even wait 47 days, and I will not redefine what we are experiencing now. But we are not experiencing things related to democracy, good governance, or the rule of law. Ultimately, we conduct politics by trusting the minds, consciences, and wisdom of the people in this country.

We know that voters who have voted for the Justice and Development Party in the past with great belief, trust, and expectations are also in a state of great disappointment and serious questioning in the face of so much injustice. Of course, we say that fortress politics is now over. We say that if the Republican People's Party has any fortresses, let them be sacrificed for the nation. No place is anyone's fortress. We say that the fortress belongs to the nation, all fortresses now.

In this sense, we hope that the voter will no longer give credit to politics that polarizes, marginalizes, demonizes the other, and crowds its own ranks through this. This provides very serious opportunities for a political movement that has emerged with good intentions and the claim of solving a locked process, such as the Anahtar Party, alongside the fact that the Republican People's Party reached a very important voter base on March 31 that it had not been able to get votes from before and continues to do so. At this point, we wished each other success.

We also talked together and exchanged ideas about the fact that each of us has solution proposals for the country's problems with different perspectives but with the same good intentions and the same hope. As the Republican People's Party, we wish success to the esteemed Chairman, to the organizations they have completed in the person of our administrators here, and to all their branches. I would like to express my best wishes. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, thank you, welcome, you have honored us."