Tension at the CHP convention: Berhan Şimşek explains the dispute

At the CHP, which held its 21st Extraordinary Convention, former MP Berhan Şimşek, who claimed his candidacy for party leader was not accepted because he submitted his 97 signatures 5 minutes late, argued with Özgür Özel in the convention hall. In a statement to journalists afterward, Şimşek criticized CHP leader Özgür Özel and the party administration with harsh words, stating, "Mr. Özgür Özel, I congratulate you. Now one of the strikers is missing, Mr. Kemal is not here. You can announce your presidential candidacy now. Best of luck to you all. I feel great pain on behalf of my party. Friends, when I was writing 'CHP' on walls in this party, Mr. Özgür Özel and those around him were still wearing short pants."

Convention Board Chairman Bülent Nuri Çavuşoğlu denied Berhan Şimşek's claims, saying, "Forget 5 minutes, nothing reached us until the end of the Chairman's one-and-a-half-hour speech." 

Speaking to Habertürk columnist Nagehan Alçı regarding the incident that caused a crisis at the CHP Convention, Berhan Şimşek reiterated his claims that his candidacy application was not accepted because he was 5 minutes late, saying, "I would not have stepped forward if Mr. Kemal were a candidate." 

In her article titled "What happened at the CHP Convention," Nagehan Alçı shared the following regarding her interview with Şimşek:

"The only 'dissenting' scene at the convention was Berhan Şimşek's objections and the footage of the tension between him and Özgür Özel. After watching that footage, I called Şimşek.

'Mr. Berhan, if you are aspiring to such an important position, why were you late? Why didn't you apply on time?' I asked.

'Ms. Nagehan, honestly, you wouldn't believe it, they didn't take my application because of 5 minutes. I've been running on 4 hours of sleep; I wrote my speech until 4 in the morning. I collected 92 signatures, everything was ready. However, entering the Nazım Hikmet Culture Center where the convention was held is a challenge. Even if I got in, some of the delegates couldn't, a lot of time was lost.

I went to the Board and said, ‘look, these types of delays happened at the last convention, you even accepted names with a four-hour delay, these things can happen,’ they didn't take it into account. I said I wanted to speak on procedure, they didn't listen to me.'

The point I don't understand is why Mr. Berhan left his candidacy announcement to the last minute…

ŞİMŞEK: I WOULD NOT HAVE STEPPED FORWARD IF MR. KEMAL WERE A CANDIDATE

He explained it as follows: 'I had come to support Mr. Kemal. When Mr. Kemal said I am not a candidate, my friends said, well then you become a candidate, so I decided to run in a rush.'

Berhan Şimşek also learned that Kılıçdaroğlu would not be a candidate from the statement he gave to Muharrem Sarıkaya. This means Kılıçdaroğlu wanted his close circle to remain in expectation until the very last moment.

'It wouldn't have suited my manners to step forward while Mr. Kemal was there; I decided to do so only when he didn't,' he said.

Berhan Bey was going to make a very harsh speech regarding Özgür Özel's administration, the normalization process, and the steps he has taken. He was going to link İmamoğlu being in prison to the normalization process. Since he couldn't enter the race, he couldn't make the speech either.

I don't agree with what he was going to say there; on the contrary, I am of the opinion that moving away from normalization brings harm to the CHP, but if Berhan Bey had applied and taken the stage, I think it would have been an example in terms of showing the CHP's intra-party democratic culture, and it would have brought more benefit than harm to Özgür Özel."