Özdağ: The government is eager to create a 'thornless rose garden' through political bans
Victory Party (Zafer Partisi) Chairman Ümit Özdağ attended the trial of former CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Showing his support by standing with Kılıçdaroğlu, Özdağ criticized the actions of the AKP government in a statement he made upon leaving the courthouse.
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Evaluating the agenda after leaving the courthouse, Victory Party Chairman Özdağ made the following statements:
Today, as a Victory Party delegation, we attended the trial of former CHP Chairman Mr. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
We saw that Nasuh Mahruki was arrested for criticizing the Supreme Election Council (YSK), which, while transitioning to the Presidential Government System, placed itself in the position of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) and deemed ballots without official seals as valid.
This morning, we also saw that lawsuits were filed against Fatih Altaylı and İsmail Saymaz simply because they criticized the government.
You can turn half of Turkey into a prison and push the entire opposition into that half if you want. You can play at democracy in the remaining half. You can pretend that there is a state of law.
This is not something that can be accepted. That is why we came here today as the Victory Party to support Mr. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who is exercising his rights stemming from the Constitution, and to support the rule of law.
Tomorrow, as the Victory Party, we will provide the same support to Mr. Ekrem İmamoğlu. Because this is what democracy is. Mr. Kemal may be our rival in politics. Mr. Ekrem may be our rival in politics. We want them to remain as our rivals without being banned. Because democracy requires this.
The government, however, is eager to create a 'thornless rose garden' by imposing political bans on its rivals. We must not allow this.