At CHP's Presidential Candidate Office opening, Özgür Özel fires sharp words at Hakan Fidan

CHP's first Presidential Candidate Office opened in Ankara. CHP leader Özgür Özel addressed citizens gathered in front of the office.

The number of offices is expected to grow, with the second one set to open in İstanbul.

Before the opening, citizens gathered near the Bülent Ecevit Party School building on Üsküp Caddesi in Ankara. The campaign's main slogan was set as "For everyone, everywhere, justice first, freedom first."

DİLEK İMAMOĞLU: THIS WILL BE THE BEGINNING OF CHANGE

Ekrem İmamoğlu's wife Dilek İmamoğlu commented on the office opening, saying "This will be the beginning of change," and added, "İmamoğlu wants justice to be ensured for everyone."

İmamoğlu said, "This opening is the beginning of a will. We want freedom."

İMAMOĞLU'S LETTER WAS READ ALOUD

CHP Secretary-General Selin Sayek Böke read out a letter from İstanbul Metropolitan Mayor and presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu.

İmamoğlu used the following words in his letter:

"My dear fellow travellers, esteemed citizens, my beloved nation. Welcome to the opening of our Presidential Candidate Office.

The determination of leaders by citizens with equal rights, through free and fair elections, is the foundation of our republic and the essential condition of our democracy. That is why, even in the darkest times, even in the most difficult days when the country is being governed very badly, there is always hope within us. We think: on a Sunday we go to the ballot box, we change the government, the course of our lives changes. It was Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk who gave our nation this hope, this self-confidence. No one can take it away.

From time to time, there have been those who disregarded the nation and fancied themselves the owners of the state. But our history has shown us that the true owner of the state is the nation, that governments are temporary, while the dreams and goals of our nation are permanent.

The Presidential Candidate Office is, above all, an expression of our nation's commitment to the republic and democracy, and of its belief in the supremacy of the national will. It is an expression of our nation's demand for a political competition conducted on equal terms and with integrity. With these qualities, this place belongs not to a party or an individual, but to the nation. It belongs entirely to the whole nation.

This place will be a centre where we write history together with our nation. Dear citizens, the essence of democratic politics is to collectively and peacefully pursue the common interests of society, and to resolve the country's problems through consensus and cooperation. This requires pluralism, freedom of thought and expression. It requires the pursuit of the broadest agreement, the greatest consensus. The Presidential Candidate Office sets out with the aim of producing fundamental and lasting solutions to the country's problems through an understanding of democratic politics, and of achieving victory without fail.

Let everyone know well that the only victory we pursue is the victory of common reason and common conscience. The victory we pursue is to rescue the nation from the situation it has fallen into. We set out to make Türkiye a country of hardworking, free, and happy people who live without financial hardship and without fear of the future. We set out so that the value of work and production is recognised, and so that everyone can rightfully receive the return on their labour, their enterprise, their investment. We set out so that justice prevails for everyone, everywhere, and so that no one feels subjected to inequality or discrimination. We set out so that freedom prevails for everyone, everywhere, and so that no one feels restricted or constrained by injustices and impossibilities. We set out so that everyone is safe and secure at home, on the street, at the workplace, at school, at the hospital. We set out so that the state is everyone's state — one whose justice and power are beyond question, a strong state that everyone knows stands fully by their side and makes everyone feel safe.

And we will of course make Türkiye a much stronger, wealthier, and greater country. Together, we will build a Türkiye that reflects its strength, wealth, and greatness to all its citizens, without exception, as freedom, prosperity, and happiness. We promise not merely a change of one person, one team, or one programme, but a great change of mentality. The one-man regime has caused enormous damage and erosion to the fundamental values in the functioning of the state, to the strength of institutions and rules, to state-nation relations, to ways of doing politics, and to the sense of social unity and solidarity. We will resolve all the issues of our country with a pluralist, democratic understanding based on the rule of law and the separation of powers."

STATEMENT FROM YAVAŞ

Before CHP leader Özel, Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Yavaş took the podium. Yavaş shared the latest situation regarding forest fires with citizens:

"They are the true nationalists. Young people who protect Türkiye's greenery and values. Nationalism means protecting all your values, down to every stone, every patch of soil, every insect."

"ARE YOU WAITING FOR THEM TO DIE?"

Mansur Yavaş continued his speech as follows:

"Dear Ankara residents, we are pursuing justice, we want the rule of law. The government does not comply with the laws it has itself enacted. They said pre-trial detention would not be the norm — look at where we have ended up. Someone posts a tweet in the evening and is taken into custody by morning, arrested and dragged away. You have detained people we believe to be innocent. There is not even an indictment yet. The Constitution states the following: a person who is arrested is, from the moment of their arrest, entrusted to the compassionate arms of the state. The state alone is responsible for their health. Given this, are you waiting for Murat Çalık and Muhittin Böcek to die? Why are you not releasing them?

Put them on trial, but try them without detention. Do not play games with people's mental health."

ÖZEL ADDRESSES THE CROWD

CHP leader Özgür Özel is addressing the crowd gathered at the venue...

Highlights from Özel's speech are as follows:

"Hosts of our Republic, custodians of our Çankaya Palace, of our Anıtkabir. We know that this city, this Republic, was founded by those who were not afraid. Here too are those who left fear at home. With the opening of this office, we are launching here a great march toward power — a march in which step will be added to step. This building, which bears the marks of the first coup and in which so many of our comrades were interrogated as a State Security Court, was very hard to obtain. This building, which was not defeated by a coup and stood tall, will now become the symbolic venue of those who resist another coup — the coup of 19 March.

Against the coup attempt of 19 March, a new march has begun — one that spread the great struggle across all of Türkiye, with our 2.5 million members, 15 million people, my grandmother with her hands in the garden, those carrying a child in their womb seeking that child's future through that solidarity ballot box. Ekrem İmamoğlu is no longer the candidate of a party but of the nation. He is Türkiye's candidate. That is why our Presidential Candidate Office does not belong to a party. Of course the premises belong to CHP, but the name of the premises is also the family home.

Everyone is born and grows up in the family home; some go further away, some stay nearby. But everyone knows that when I am in trouble, there is smoke rising from the chimney of the family home. This is that day. The family home is where all of Türkiye's democrats unite — conservative democrats, nationalist democrats, socialist democrats, liberal democrats, Kurdish democrats. And this family home does not belong to a party. We are those who carry the firewood to keep the chimney of the family home burning. But the family home belongs to all of Türkiye. Because the title deed bears neither the name of Özgür Özel nor the names of previous party leaders. The title deed of the family home belongs to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. We have separated the office from the headquarters. The doors here are open to everyone. Open to those with ideas, to those with energy. This is the journey of Gazi's party marching to power once more, of bringing a smile to the faces of the aggrieved once more, of defeating hunger once more, of eliminating unemployment, of looking to the future with hope — and that journey begins today, here, with the Presidential Candidate Office.

Now, while some are constantly tightening their belts, others have insatiable eyes and endless greed despite wealth enough to last seven generations of their family for 700 years. We are in a period governed by those who tarnish the equal citizenship entrusted to us by Atatürk by creating class divisions.

"I AM INVITING YOU TO THE BALLOT BOX ON 2 NOVEMBER"

Unfortunately, some children start life far behind, with a gap too large to close. It is like this in education, in health, even in nutrition. The cogs of the machine they have built always work for the rich but grind the poor to pieces. The nation whose pot does not boil will soon raise the cauldron at the elections and send these people packing. They have made up their minds — I see it on the streets, in the markets, in the squares. We have our office, we have our candidate no matter how much you have thrown him inside, we have our youth — if you have the courage, come face the nation. I am inviting you to the ballot box on 2 November."

"ERDOĞAN SHOULD BE THANKING US"

Erdoğan should be thanking us. The day before yesterday they asked the German government: 'Germany wasn't giving it (the Eurofighter) — what changed?' And they said, 'It was because Ekrem İmamoğlu's party gave its approval, that's why we gave it.' We are those who think of this country's interests more than you do, even with our child in prison and our hearts in our throats."

"They say we are complaining about them abroad — I will tell the story of the coup, I will speak of the hypocrisy, I will make every kind of criticism, but I will defend Türkiye's interests 50 times more than Tayyip Erdoğan!"

"YOU WILL DROWN IN THOSE TEARS!"

"I am addressing AK Torosçu — you are threatening the nation with their 13-year-old children, you are turning Mehmet Murat Çalık's mother's tears into a flood — I swear you will drown in those tears!"

HE ADDRESSED HAKAN FİDAN: AN APPOINTEE NOT WORTH MY SHOE...

Özel addressed Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan after Fidan targeted him. Özel said, "Shame on you, you appointee not worth my shoe, feeding hopes from Kurtlar Vadisi and thinking you'll deceive the youth with TikTok!"

News Source: 12punto