Rumors fall flat, Mesut Özarslan still hasn't joined the AKP: Who is behind the scenes?

A new development has occurred in the party-switching process that has been discussed in political circles for a long time. Following his resignation from the Republican People's Party (CHP) last month, Mesut Özarslan did not join the AKP this week either.

THE BADGE CEREMONY DID NOT TAKE PLACE

Özarslan was expected to join the AKP this week and have his badge pinned by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. However, no badge-pinning ceremony was held following the AKP Group Meeting.

PRO-GOVERNMENT MEDIA HAD SAID "THIS WEEK"

Reports in the pro-government media had raised claims that Özarslan would join the AKP within this week. With the expected participation failing to materialize, these claims did not find confirmation.

GÖKÇEK'S STATEMENTS ARE BACK ON THE AGENDA

As discussions regarding Özarslan's transition to the AKP continue, the statements previously made by Osman Gökçek have also returned to the agenda. The process in which Gökçek filed a complaint against Özarslan has drawn attention.

THE MINISTRY HAD LAUNCHED AN INVESTIGATION

The Ministry of Interior had launched an investigation into Mesut Özarslan upon Osman Gökçek's complaint. In this context, it was reported that a Civil Inspector was assigned to examine the projects Özarslan carried out during his tenure as General Manager of PORTAŞ A.Ş.

ÖZEL CALLED HIM "TOSUNCUK" AND POINTED TO GÖKÇEK

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel also reacted very harshly yesterday to the claim that Özarslan would switch to the AKP.

Özel stated the following:

“Birds of a feather flock together. This nation sees it. I hope, I am waiting for the Keçiören Mayor to be taken this Wednesday, by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as he deserves. We will talk after that. After that. Osman Gökçek was saying all sorts of things; he was saying these things while the Keçiören Mayor was in the CHP. I would call him and ask the Keçiören Mayor. ‘By God, it’s a lie.’ Then the WhatsApp messages surfaced. Did I take responsibility? I did. Did I stand by him? I did. I said, ‘You were calling it a lie,’ I said, ‘You are going to the party of those who call you a thief.’ I said, ‘You are going to the party of those who call you a bribe-taker.’ I sent him a message saying, ‘I believed in you, it turns out you are a bribe-taker, a thief. You have found your match.’ All those messages surfaced. They are also entering court files. Those messages, you know, the things I said. They lay the whole event bare. Osman Gökçek says ‘Thief,’ I call and ask. He says ‘Lie.’ I say ‘I believe you.’ Then I say it when I see he is going to another party, and it turns out to be true. Well, I said ‘Let Mansur Yavaş manage’ this Ankara. The people of Ankara decided so. Who did Tayyip Erdoğan say should manage it? Turgut Altınok. What does Turgut Altınok say? He says of the Keçiören Mayor, ‘He is trying to change parties to cover up his corruption.’ With this Turgut Altınok standing there, with these words standing there, what are we going to do? The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office requested the Portaş file. Formally. Without doing anything, go join the AK Party right now, and then once you join the AK Party, be saved from being thrown in jail. The 'Heel-Clicking Efe' (Topuklu Efe), now here is the 'Tosuncuk Efe.' The Tosuncuk version. Go on, you found your match. Let me see you. Mr. Recep, take him, pin the badge. Let Osman applaud too, like those sitting in the front row of 'Animals Racing,' clapping away. Let him applaud there. Definitely invite him, definitely invite him to the group meeting, let Turgut Altınok and Osman Gökçek sit side by side. And put Tosuncuk between them. Let Tosuncuk go out from there and praise Tayyip Erdoğan like that. Let the two of them hold him by the arm, hold him, hold him, and then let go. Let Tosuncuk run towards the podium like that. This is what you deserve. And when you come, you pet him on the head, like this, on the nape of the neck. ‘Well done, son. You stole there, you ran here, you were saved. Well done, son.’ Call the 'Heel-Clicking Efe' too, let him click his heels and come from Aydın. Let him applaud wildly too. This is what you deserve. You are like a caricature. You have turned the country into a dystopian novel, a dystopian novel. I cannot believe what is happening, what we are experiencing.”

“WE ARE WAITING FOR ANSWERS TO OUR QUESTIONS, WE ARE WAITING FOR THE 'TOSUNCUK SHOW'”

“I have one more thing to say to the Minister of Interior. I forgot that. Mr. Minister of Interior, since he is so sincere in exposing these matters. I am asking him. In an investigation conducted with confidentiality by the prosecutor's office into the Ministry of Interior, and it doesn't matter if it wasn't conducted with confidentiality. The police affiliated with the Ministry of Interior in Ankara tell us, ‘We didn't do it, we didn't even know. They came from Istanbul, they didn't trust us!’ They received intelligence from Istanbul that he was at the hotel, they knocked on the hotel door and took those videos. I ask the Minister of Interior, those videos were served to the pro-government press within 1.5 hours. The police who took those videos, they went and entrusted that video to someone. Or they did it themselves. Or they did it where they entrusted it. Have you launched an investigation into these? Ask those people, who gave the order to deliver this to the Sabah newspaper? Or did they give it to the prosecutor's office? Then ask the prosecutor, who gave this here? What time was the video taken, what time was it transferred to Istanbul, in whose custody was the video in the time until it reached the Sabah newspaper? It is easy to assassinate someone's character like that. That is why we are waiting for answers to all these questions one by one, and on Wednesday we will all watch the 'Tosuncuk Show' together. We are all waiting together. Come on then, let them take him. We will talk about the rest after that.”