Özgür Özel celebrates the new year with politicians: He did not call only one name

Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Özgür Özel called Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş and the chairmen of political parties by phone to celebrate their new year as 2026 approached.

In his calls, Özel wished for a year full of health, peace, prosperity, and justice.

The names that CHP Leader Özgür Özel spoke with by phone are as follows:

TBMM Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş

DEM Party Co-Chairs Tuncer Bakırhan and Tülay Hatimoğulları

MHP Chairman Devlet Bahçeli

İYİ Party Chairman Müsavat Dervişoğlu

DEVA Party Chairman Ali Babacan

Saadet Party Chairman Mahmut Arıkan

Gelecek Party Chairman Ahmet Davutoğlu

TİP Chairman Erkan Baş

Yeniden Refah Party Chairman Fatih Erbakan

Democrat Party Chairman Gültekin Uysal

DSP Chairman Önder Aksakal

EMEP Chairman Seyit Aslan

SOL Party Chairman Önder İşleyen

Zafer Party Chairman Ümit Özdağ

BBP Chairman Mustafa Destici

BTP Chairman Hüseyin Baş

HE DID NOT CALL A SINGLE NAME

Özgür Özel did not call only President and AKP Chairman Erdoğan.

Republican People's Party Chairman Özgür Özel also called former Presidents Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Abdullah Gül, as well as former Chairmen Hikmet Çetin, Murat Karayalçın, and Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu by phone to celebrate their new year.

ÖZEL'S NEW YEAR MESSAGE

On the other hand, the message Özgür Özel released for the new year is as follows:

"Together, we are leaving behind a difficult year for our country and our nation; we are stepping into a new year with great hopes and unwavering faith.

Unfortunately, 2025 was not good for Turkey. The deterioration in the economy, which has been ongoing since 2018, has deepened further. Deep poverty and unstoppable cost of living have engulfed every corner of our country. Workers and retirees received wages below the hunger threshold for months, and for the first time in our history, the new minimum wage was announced below the hunger threshold.

While our farmers and livestock producers were crushed under heavy production costs, they were left alone in the face of drought and frost disasters. The support amount stipulated in the Agriculture Law was not provided in 2025, and it has already been announced that it will not be provided next year either. Because the farmer was not supported, food price hikes did not stop, and our food inflation reached a historical peak.

Unfortunately, the Ak Party government has made our country today the country with the highest inflation, highest unemployment, highest interest rates, most unjust income and tax system, and highest poverty rate in Europe.

This system could neither ensure the nation's economic security nor protect our people. Our women who were subjected to violence could not be kept safe. 1,956 children and adult workers, primarily our children whom citizens sent to MESEMs trusting their state, were taken from life in work accidents. We experienced pains that will not subside in Kartalkaya and Dilovası. We gave 34 of our heroic soldiers as martyrs due to methane gas, being kept under the sun, and a plane crash. Due to the social crisis and lack of supervision caused by deep poverty, we were dragged into a vortex of betting, gambling, and drugs.

Everyone knew that the Ak Party, which brought the country to this state, could not be a hope for the nation, and lost the last local elections, would eventually leave power through general elections. But those who should have tried to win the nation's heart again by doing good work resorted to a path never seen in our history and staged a coup against their political rival on March 19, 2025. Our Presidential Candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu and our fellow travelers were imprisoned, and heavy attacks reaching the threat of closing our party were carried out.

We are the party of those who believe in the idea of democracy.

That is why we did not surrender; we stood up. We started a democratic resistance against the coup. On March 23, 15.5 million of our citizens went to the ballot boxes and made Ekrem İmamoğlu a presidential candidate. We organized 77 actions in 9 months. More than 11 million people participated in these actions alone. In the signature campaign we launched afterward, 25.1 million signatures were collected for İmamoğlu's freedom and the demand for early elections.

2025 was a year of "coup" for the Ak Party and a year of "struggle" for us. 2025 had two photographs. One was the photographs of those detained by a civilian coup and the subsequent oppressive regime, and the other was the photograph of millions resisting in the squares...

We will continue to grow hope, not fear, in the new year.

We will not surrender to evil or mediocrity. We will stand on the side of the nation. Of course, we will explain the problems and show our reaction. But we will also explain to 86 million how we will solve these problems. With our hardworking organization, our Party Assembly, our Central Executive Board, our Parliamentary Group, and our Presidential Candidate Office that adds strength to our power, we are coming with our most constructive solutions to the nation's most burning problems.

May our nation be at ease. Today, the CHP is the ruling party in thought and mind. Being in power in practice is as close as a ballot box away. With our competent staff, discipline, seriousness, and solution projects, we will govern Turkey much better than the Ak Party. We will govern without polarizing, without marginalizing, by rejecting revanchism, and as the guarantor of all the nation's rights and freedoms.

The calendar pages of 2026 will fall for the great change in Turkey. We will gather this house, our homeland, which is falling apart on all sides, again. The residents of this house, who have been despised for years, will sit at the same dining table during our term. We will be the hands that repair the falling roof, illuminate the rooms where the sun does not enter, and relight the extinguished hearth. We will bring peace, brotherhood, tranquility, and prosperity to this country. We promise our nation.

Regardless of their political views, I celebrate the new year of all our citizens. I wish the new year brings health, peace, prosperity, and justice to everyone. I commemorate our losses this year; my brother Ferdi Zeyrek, our child Gülşah Durbay, and our former Chairman Altan Öymen, along with the citizens we lost in painful events and all our martyrs, with mercy and gratitude."