'The candidates were right...' CHP leader Özel's statement on local elections: 'We learned by losing'

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel was a guest on the program "Görkemli Hatıralar" broadcast on Halk TV.

"THE CANDIDATES WERE RIGHT"

Özel said the following:

"Furthermore, if the state competes with the nation, the nation always wins. If the state is used as a tool for a task, if the state is pitted against the nation, the nation wins. The candidates were right; there were over 1,000 candidates in Turkey, and the Headquarters team was new and energetic. Alongside them was a Chairman who believed in them; success belongs to the party, success belongs to the nationalists, conservatives, social democrats, and all of Turkey's democrats."

"THE WORLD IS UNAWARE OF SUCH A PRODUCT"

Emphasizing that the Manisa Mesir Festival was being organized for the first time by a mayor elected from the CHP, Özel noted the following:

"In Spain, people run in front of 10-15 bulls, and the whole world watches that festival. There is a tomato festival. The whole city throws tomatoes at each other, and the world watches. Tourists from 180 countries go there. This is one of the oldest folk medicines in the world. A medicine made from 41 types of spices. The world is unaware of such a product. You will see in a moment, it will be scattered from the domes and minarets. It is an incredible ritual. Hands will be raised for healing. If there are not 10,000 tourists from all over the world, from 150 countries, in Manisa today, it means this Mesir festival is not being done well. We will do it the best way. A product like Mesir has been mixed in these lands for 484 years, scattered from these lands, and this tradition is being preserved. The whole world will be aware of Mesir. You will see, one day people from more than a hundred countries will come to Manisa for the Mesir festivals and follow the festivities. It will be good for Manisa, and it will be good for Turkey."

Providing information about other cultural heritages in Manisa, Özel stated, "Every corner of this city deserves tourists and tourism."

Özel stated that for more tourists to come to the city, the airport in Akhisar should be civilianized in a way that allows for international flights.

"WE LEARNED TO WIN BY LOSING"

Reminding that there were periods when they were unsuccessful in politics, Özel continued:

"We have always lost in politics. We lost many times. But every holiday, we went to the governor's holiday celebration; some days we went as 2 people, some days as 7. But we went every holiday. I became chairman and I came again. Let me say something like this: If you cannot stomach losing, if you do not know how to lose, you cannot learn how to win. Congratulating the opponent is a virtue. Respecting the opponent is a virtue. One who does not know their opponent cannot defeat them. That is why, without ever compromising on sportsmanship and good intentions, we learned to win by losing. We learned to win by losing. There was a holiday celebration in recent days. We used to go there with zero mayors. Last time it was 4. Now we looked and it became 15 out of 18. But we looked and saw that neither the provincial head nor the deputies from the AK Party and MHP had come to that celebration. They are losing for the first time. That day I told my provincial head, 'The fault here is not theirs. It means we are doing something wrong.' If the loser is not coming here, there is a deficiency. From now on, call the provincial heads of other parties for the holidays and say, 'Let's go together.' We will bring peace, brotherhood, and unity to this city that we won by losing."