CHP's 97th rally in Pendik: Özgür Özel calls on Erdoğan: 'If you have a diploma, present it and win the court case'

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel addressed the citizens filling the rally area in Pendik. Stating that the CHP's presidential candidate is İmamoğlu, Özel issued a call for a diploma to AKP Chairman and President Erdoğan.

Özel's statements are as follows:

"They stood tall like giants beside those who stand with their heads held high in factories and on the streets. Victory is near!

There is strength to fight, power to speak, and breath to be spent. Victory is near!

There is a life to be given, a brother standing tall, and a life sacrificed for a brother. Victory is near!

Hello to my beloved Istanbul, to our Anatolian side! Greetings to you, Pendik, greetings! To those who protect their choice, to those who protect their will...

Today, we are at the gateway of Istanbul opening to Anatolia. We are together with the brave people of Pendik, with the brave people of the Anatolian side. At the beginning of March, in cold weather, we are shoulder to shoulder in a large square; side by side, heart to heart. And almost a year after the March 19 coup, one week before the anniversary of the coup, we are all together at our 97th action. Welcome, you have honored us.

Looking at you, I see that darkness can never win; the sun rises, and light wins. Not those who oppress, but those who resist oppression win. Not the cowards, but the brave win. Not the evil, but the good win. Looking at you, I see that we will win, we will win, we will win!

Tonight, we are tens of thousands in this cold again, but of course, a part of us is still missing. Today, here in the first district, we send our greetings to our Beykoz Mayor Alaattin Köseler, our Şile Mayor Özgür Kabadayı, our municipal council members, our bureaucrats, and our laboring friends. Greetings to the lions!"

"I ENTRUST THE BOOK TITLED 'ACCOUNT' TO YOU"

"Unfortunately, we have not been able to win the elections in Pendik for 35 years. But we did not hold a grudge against Pendik. We looked for the fault in ourselves, we looked for the right candidate, we looked for our shortcomings, we tried, and although we could not win Pendik in these elections, we achieved a great success. We received 43% of the vote and lost Pendik by a small margin. Our candidate from that day, Tarık Balyalı, is with us today; I thank you for supporting him and all the soldiers of the Pendik organization who conducted a tremendous campaign.

That Tarık Balyalı wrote a book, a book. That book is in my hand. First of all, let me say this; after the March 19 coup, I entrusted the book 'Entrusted to the Nation' (the book for which one of us wrote the foreword and the other the afterword, together with Mayor Ekrem) to you. Dear Yavuz Oğhan had written the book, and we had said that the proceeds would go to the 'Family Solidarity Network', and also to a fund to find homes for those displaced during the entire struggle process, to find scholarships for those whose scholarships were cut, and to support friends whose salaries were cut. You protected the book, the 'Entrusted to the Nation' book. You bought it, read it, gifted it, and ensured the book was sold. Today, the first royalties for that book in its sixth month have arrived, and they are reaching their destinations. We thank everyone who supported the book from the bottom of our hearts. Glad you exist!

You are the millions of this country who know solidarity best, who draw strength from unity and give strength, and who stand side by side to change the course of history. Glad you exist, glad you exist!

Afterwards, Mr. Balyalı promised the proceeds of the books he wrote to the same fund, and they will be transferred in the coming months. Now, Pendik's latest candidate Tarık Balyalı has written a book, titled 'Account'. All the proceeds of this book, all of them, will be transferred as they are to the 'Family Solidarity Network' and to alleviate the grievances of everyone harmed by this struggle, as much as an ant can carry. I entrust Tarık Balyalı's book on 'IMM Corruption During the AKP Era', the book titled 'Account', to you."

"THOSE WHO SUPPOSEDLY PROSTRATE THEMSELVES HAVE COMMITTED HALF A BILLION IN CORRUPTION UNDER THE PRETEXT OF CLEANING THE MOSQUE ENTRUSTED BY THE ANCESTORS"

"A magnificent work; it is titled 'Account' and is about 'IMM Corruption During the AKP Era'. If you look, the author is Tarık Balyalı; he touched the keys of the computer, the keyboard. But truly, whatever I say is not enough; look at this AK Party, they have written the book on corruption, they have written the book on corruption!

He started working during his time as an IMM Municipal Council Member and Group Deputy Chairman. Today, while those who supposedly judge Mayor Ekrem and our friends have not a single piece of evidence in their hands; that is, while they make secret witnesses tell a world of lies and have lost the secret witness after a year, and are having those statements written by another secret witness (shamelessly changing witnesses as if it were a theater play and an actor got sick, so they brought in another actor), there is concrete evidence in Tarık Balyalı's book here. Every page is a lesson, every page is a scandal, but let me tell you one, just one at random.

Here is the book. Just one example; the year is 2018, the tender: 'Service Procurement Tender for Keeping Selatin Mosques Ready for Worship'. That is, we are going to clean the mosques built by the sultan and his family in Istanbul, which are entrusted by our ancestors. We open a tender for this; a company wins the tender for 100 million TL. A year later, in 2019, we come and look at the work done; we open the same tender again, and this time a world of offers comes in saying 'I will do it for 35 million TL'. It is examined that the work taken for 100 million a year ago was being done for 35 million. With the money of seven years ago, there is 65 million lira; if you convert the dollar to today, it is 550 million lira, half a billion lira of corruption. Where? In mosque cleaning.

They fear neither God nor are they ashamed of people; they are supposedly conservative, they supposedly prostrate themselves, and they have committed half a billion in corruption under the pretext of cleaning the mosque entrusted by the ancestors. Here is the book, titled 'Account'. But so that this can be accounted for, so that this can be questioned, documents were prepared in 2019, a file was prepared, and action was taken to be sent to the prosecutor's office; the then-Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu came to the rescue of the thieves. He came to the rescue of the thieves. He came and said; 'You will give me the entire file.' He took the file, sat on it, and since that day, not an inch of progress has been made on this file, not a step has been taken.

On one side, there are those who take the most honest bureaucrats in the world and put them inside with slander, those who say 'sign the signature and reunite with your child', those who say 'if you don't accuse Ekrem, you will rot here', and our honest, upright friends who do not surrender to them; on the other side, there are those who commit corruption three times over in mosque cleaning, who do the work for three times the price, who make a fortune out of cleaning mosques, and a person named Süleyman Soylu who defends them."

"THE AKP'S DARK ORDER HAS BOWED EVERYONE'S NECK, BROKEN THE RETIREE'S NECK"

"Dear friends, if you don't remind a thief that they are a thief, they will lecture you on morality. We are facing exactly this situation. But I swear that those files will be opened, those accounts will be settled; not without evidence like the slanders thrown at us, but with all their proofs, all of them will be held to account.

By the way, I took the book from his hand, I gave it back; our IMM Deputy Mayor Nuri Aslan. Nuri Aslan is in Pendik on Friday. Not like those who commit corruption by saying 'we will clean the mosque'; with sincerity, the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality built a mosque in Pendik in the name of Elmalılı Hamdi Yazır, one of the most important names in Turkish Quran interpretation in Turkey. It opens with prayer on Friday, one of Mayor Ekrem's dreams comes true. Nuri Aslan is experiencing the honor of finishing this. We thank the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality from the heart on this Ramadan evening with your applause.

Dear Pendik residents; there is no sound gear in a broken system. If there is no justice, there is no prosperity. The AKP's dark order continues to impoverish the country. Today, the hunger threshold is 32,000 lira, the poverty threshold is 105,000 lira. The minimum wage is 28,000, the lowest pension is 20,000 lira. If five retirees come together, they don't make one rich person; let alone wealth, five retirees cannot escape poverty. Such income inequality has never been seen.

Before they came with the salary, the triple coalition government they criticized so much gave the lowest pension in September 2002, which could buy 8 quarter gold coins. Today, the lowest pension is 20,000 lira, it cannot even buy one and a half quarter gold coins. At the end of the past 23-24 years, they have made the retiree accept poverty. It has reached such a point that now when a retiree says it, 8 quarter gold coins seem like a dream.

Or at that time, the lowest pension was one and a half times the minimum wage. We absolutely do not accept today's 28,000 minimum wage, but even if you apply it to that, it makes 42,000 lira. That is, today even the AKP's low minimum wage makes 42,000 lira for the retiree with the one and a half minimum wage calculation, but they give 20,000 lira. We had pledged a 39,000 lira minimum wage; when you say one and a half pension, it automatically goes up to 60,000 lira. Where is 20,000 lira, where is 42,000 lira? Where is 20,000 lira, where is 60,000 lira? If you calculate it in gold, where is one and a half gold, where is 8 quarter gold?

The retiree has been subjected to the greatest injustice in world history. The AKP's dark order has bent everyone's back, broken the retiree's back. It has bowed everyone's neck, broken the retiree's neck. In the AKP's dark order, the greatest disloyalty has been done to the retiree."

"HE SAYS 'GOOD NEWS TO MY RETIREE'. MAY SUCH GOOD NEWS NOT EXIST"

"A retiree is someone who has worked for this state, for this nation, to raise their children, whose palms have become calloused, whose elbows have worn out, whose glasses have thickened, who has worked, worked with honor. Giving 20,000 lira to a retiree or even dropping a civil servant retiree below the minimum wage, making every retiree poor, dropping them below the hunger threshold is a great injustice.

Now, the architect of this injustice, this unfairness, the founder of poverty in Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has come out today and says; 'I have good news for retirees, I have good news for retirees.' Do you know what he is saying to the retiree as good news, without shame or embarrassment? You know the 1,000 lira retirement bonus that he promised in 2015 and could only keep his word in 2018... You know the retirement bonus that the Republican People's Party said 'one salary bonus for every retiree on religious holidays' in the 2015 elections, which they said 'it won't happen first' and then said 'we will give it too' while going to November 1, and which they gave 1,000 lira in 2018...

The retirement bonus that bought 24 kilos of cubed beef that day, buys 4 kilos of cubed beef today... That day, 1,000 lira bought 24 kilos of cubed beef; today, the 4,000 lira they give buys 4 kilos. They were supposedly going to make this 4,000 lira 5 this year, we said 'it's too little', we said 'let it be higher'; they didn't even give 5. They gave 4, and do you know what the gentleman is saying as good news today? He says he will give this 4,000 lira before the holiday! He says this as good news. Shame on such good news!

Drop 24 kilos of cubed beef to 4 kilos, back then you could buy a sacrificial sheep with one bonus, with 4,000 lira, today you can't even buy a leg. And he shamelessly says 'I am not leaving this money until after the holiday, I am giving it before the holiday, good news to my retiree'. May such good news not exist, may such a bonus not exist!"

"I HAVE BEEN ON TOP OF BUSES FOR 20 YEARS, I HAVE NOT SEEN SUCH ANGER"

"Hey Erdoğan; you know you say, 'Do politics like this, do politics like that. No, do it Ankara-based, come to Ankara, sit there, stay at the head of your party, be quiet, sit in your party, don't touch me' you say... And I say to you; get out of here! What Ankara? We are in Ankara too, we are in Ardahan too. We are in Mersin too, we are in Iğdır too. In nine districts of Istanbul, at the 97th action... You first do human-centered politics; do retiree-centered, worker-centered politics, then come before us!

This anger I see in the square... I have been on top of buses for 20 years, I have not seen such anger. Retirees; will you hold Tayyip Erdoğan to account when the day comes? He has ruined your life, will you retire him from politics? Is it a promise? Will you deal with those who eat your rights? This enthusiasm, this belief, this determination, this fiery anger in the eyes... Tayyip Erdoğan; do whatever you want, this anger is taking you away, this anger is taking you away!"

"I AM CALLING OUT TO ERDOĞAN ONCE AGAIN: COWARDS CANNOT SUCCEED"

"Hey Erdoğan! Look, look; politics is done with the nation, with the people. The nation decides who is superior. In this politics, if you call someone a 'thief', if they are a thief, they cannot go out in public. But if they are not, the person who throws that slander cannot go out in public.

I am among the nation for the 97th time on a Wednesday evening or weekend in Anatolia. Today I am in the heart of Pendik. I am in the squares, looking at the faces of the people of Pendik, looking into their eyes. Where are you, Erdoğan? Where are you?

Come on, come to the square if you trust yourself! Come on, come to this square next Wednesday, fill this square, fill it and let me see. Challenge accepted! Challenge accepted!

From here, I am calling out to Erdoğan once again: Cowards cannot succeed. You will not be afraid! You have said so much, if you have the courage, you will come before us. 25 million people signed, 25 million people signed. They say:

'Hey Erdoğan! Leave my candidate alone! Bring the ballot box! I want to see my candidate with me, in the squares.'"

"TAYYİP ERDOĞAN IS IMPLEMENTING THE MOST UNJUST TAX SYSTEM IN THE WORLD"

"Here is Erdoğan, we are here. If you have the courage, let's end this debate with the early election ballot box, if you have the courage, by coming before this nation.

On one side, the oppressed nation, retirees, workers, farmers, tradesmen suffering in misery; on the other side, you, who put our friends who attempted a coup in prison just so I can hold onto power, so I can protect my seat somehow; and the nation pays the price.

This price is riding on the nation's back after the March 19 coup by raising inflation, raising prices, raising interest rates. The cause of today's poverty is not the inflation in the world. One month's inflation in Turkey is more than the annual inflation of 100 countries in the world.

Today, the AKP's dark order in Turkey is an interest rate order. This year we are paying the highest interest in history: 2.7 trillion lira. In January and February alone, 637 million lira was paid in interest. Now from here, from Pendik, I declare that this money —the money paid in interest in January and February, the cost created by the interest rates that rose after last year's coup— if this money could have been distributed to the nation, we could have given 28,000 lira to every retiree this holiday. When the interest paid in January and February is divided per retiree, a minimum wage bonus comes out for everyone; but Tayyip Erdoğan spends this money on the coup instead of giving it to the retiree.

So, what will we do in this dark order? The process we are facing today consists of this: The nation has decided who to send and who to bring. The change of power is now a matter of timing.

Every day Tayyip Erdoğan stays in power, he is implementing the most unjust tax system in the world. He collects 65% of the 100 lira tax from indirect taxes —that is, by taking the same tax from the factory owner and the guard at his door; by taking the same tax from everyone for clothing, fashion, electricity, water, telephone, stationery— 65% tax. The income tax taken from employees' salaries or withholding tax in the bank is also 23%. The remaining 11% is taken only and only from corporate tax, that is, from the rich who earn money and make a profit.

Indirect tax and income tax are the taxes paid by this square, it is 89%; corporate tax is the tax paid by the rich who earn, it is 11%. This is called the AKP's dark order. This power will change; tax will be taken from those who earn a lot, a lot, from those who earn a little, a little, and not from those who do not earn. We are candidates to come to power and change this unjust tax system. Every day Tayyip Erdoğan stays, he collects 89% tax from the middle class and the poor, regardless of whether they are AKP, MHP; DEM, IYI Party, or CHP. Turning this upside down is only possible with a change of power."

"IF GERMANY SUCCEEDS IN THIS, IF FRANCE, SPAIN SUCCEEDS, THIS POWERFUL COUNTRY WILL ALSO SUCCEED!"

"Today, employees give three of the 12 salaries they receive as tax at the end of the year, deducted month by month and increasing. If we don't come, if this order continues, as you can see, the lowest pension is 0.6 of the minimum wage.

Under the CHP government, the lowest pension will first rise to one minimum wage, then to 1.5 minimum wage levels. Our government will give one minimum wage to retirees during the Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr holidays.

We will switch to a planned and purchase-guaranteed production model in agriculture. We will give the support that is the farmer's right, not one-fifth of it as it is today, but all of it by directing it to the right product. We will erase the interest on farmer debts and divide the principal into 5 years.

We will remove the SCT and VAT from the diesel fuel the farmer buys; we will remove the SCT and VAT from the diesel fuel the minibus driver and taxi driver buy. We will ensure the parity where one kilogram of milk can buy 1.6 kilograms of feed, we will support the milk producer, we will ban the import of animals from outside; we will make meat and milk cheaper.

And in the first 100 days of our government, if we cannot find a job, we will give a basic citizenship income to the citizen who cannot find a job, so they can live with dignity and make a living. No one in this country will face anything like struggling with unemployment, remaining poor, staying on the street, being ashamed before their spouse or child, not being able to pass in front of the butcher, not being able to pay their installment or debt to the greengrocer, and not being able to support their family while living.

If Germany succeeds in this, if Denmark succeeds, if France, Spain succeeds; this powerful country, this rich country, this beautiful country will succeed! It will succeed under the people's government! It will succeed once again as it did a hundred years ago!"

"MAYOR EKREM WILL COME OUT, HE WILL BE PRESIDENT"

"An era is closing, the era of ministers' children is ending, the era of the nation's children is coming, the nation's children!

We will switch to a school meal, school milk, and school water practice where one free school meal is given to students at school, and drinkable quality water flows from the tap or is provided by a dispenser in every school.

We will abolish interviews in the public sector and bring merit, and we will appoint 100 thousand teachers in the first year and reactivate all closed schools and closed hospitals. We will make both the teacher and the student smile.

We will end the cuts in health, participation fees, especially the 'the cheapest medicine is paid for and even that is not available, pay the difference and get your medicine' era. We will end the era of examination fees in hospitals and giving the cheapest in orthotics-prosthetics. We promise, we will make everyone smile! We will make everyone smile!

From here, I will mention it in a moment, we are doing this so that they burst, so that they burst. They have carried out the coup, they have put friends in prisons, all kinds of oppression continue, and they are waiting for the Republican People's Party to fall apart, to get confused, to be occupied, and for the march to power to be blocked. I swear from here; those doors of Silivri will open, our friends will come out, Mayor Ekrem will come out, he will be President, President!"

"WE PROMISE HOUSEWIVES!"

"From here, we have a promise to the retiree, the worker, the tradesman, the farmer, everyone, the student, the teacher. And also, there are housewives, homemakers who are at home, taking care of their children, taking care of their disabled, whom we cannot include in employment, whom we cannot include in life.

For years, for years, the social supports given a little, given a little, were shown as if they were a favor. Whereas the most invisible labor in Turkey is the labor given at home. And if we cannot include women in social life or working life with a neighborhood nursery; if we cannot ensure their insurance is paid, if we cannot pave the way for them to retire in the future, this cannot be the Republic founded by Atatürk, which is the protector of the unprotected.

In our government, as our last important promise from here tonight, as the work we will do, we express once again that; in our government, if a woman wants a job, she will either be placed in a job, or if she is not placed in a job and is working at home, she will definitely have insurance, she will have the right to retire. We promise housewives!

None of these are burdens that the country's economy cannot bear. In the coming months, with what resources will we fulfill which promise, where will we save and where will we transfer, how will we spread prosperity to the base by spreading tax to the top, not the base, how will we establish a fair tax system? With green transformation, with purple transformation, how will we both make women smile and pave the way for them, and how will we start a development move; we will explain each of these to all of Anatolia with our strong staff, our meritorious staff in the coming process. We are preparing for the strongest, longest, and most crowded election campaign not in Turkish history, but in world political history. We are introducing it to the nation. We will succeed with you, we will go down in history all together!"

"WE TRUST OURSELVES, IF ERDOĞAN TRUSTS HIMSELF, LET HIM COME BEFORE US"

"Both the world and our region are going through a critical threshold. Turkey needs to be one, to be whole, to be strong against all threats. However, the ruling party, the Justice and Development Party, which is supposedly tasked with governing the country, continues to divide the country, to polarize the nation. Exactly 357 days have passed since the March 19 coup. For 350 days, Turkey has been losing in every field. There is no one other than this government who weakens the internal front in Turkey and drains our energy with debates inside while there is a ring of fire outside. The primary enemy of fortifying the internal front and Turkey being one and together is the AKP's dark order.

Erdoğan made a call to me, and I called out to him, I am calling out: We are ready to do everything for the unity and togetherness of this country, and we are doing what is necessary. However, there cannot be so much oppression, so much injustice, so much inequality. We can all protect policies that hold the retiree's hand, see the minimum wage earner, support the employer, protect the farmer, and do not darken the student's future.

Trial without arrest lowers the tension in this country, and the issue that this nation is most occupied with is the slanders our friends are subjected to. We trust ourselves, our party, our friends, our presidential candidate. We invite those who trust themselves to support our legislative proposal, to broadcast the trials live on television, not to hide the claims or the answers from the nation, and to a live broadcast on TRT. We trust ourselves, if Erdoğan trusts himself, let him come before us!

We are tired of lies. Those who say to the same person 'you committed forgery at the age of 18, you passed from that school to this school with hundreds of students through forgery', and cancel their diploma; those who say 'spy' to the same person at the same time, and 'you cheated in the election', and 'you committed theft, corruption', and 'you were rude' on impossible planes; they all remained under their lies.

The plane they mentioned turned out to belong to an AKP member, it turned out it was never rented to Ekrem İmamoğlu. The cars Ekrem was accused of turned out to belong to an MHP deputy. They said 'dollars came out' from the Gaziosmanpaşa Municipality, the seal came out of the safe; the dollar images turned out to be TRT's stock videos.

They said 'millions of euros came out' from under the ground, from under the parquet, it all turned out to be a lie. They said 'there is a video', it turned out to be slander. They said 'there is money in the bags', a jammer came out. They called Mayor Ekrem a 'thief'; the brave son of the Black Sea came out with his head held high, his forehead clear."

"I SAID 'DIPLOMA-LESS ERDOĞAN' AND THEY FILED A LAWSUIT"

"I was in front of Istanbul University, in Beyazıt, in such a magnificent square again, while students were shouting like you, one side shouted one thing, the other side another. I said let's help them shout together, I said: Diploma-less Erdoğan!

He went to court and filed a lawsuit against us. I have a brilliant lawyer who is 25-26 years old; he appeared before those ugly lawyers of Erdoğan. And a judge like Hulusi Kentmen appeared on the bench.

They said: 'Sir, we are complaining, Özgür Özel has lied and slandered by calling our client diploma-less; we are complaining, we want compensation.' They can't get enough of money either.

Our lawyer said, he said this and that; our lawyer said: 'Do you have a diploma?' They said: 'Yes.' 'If you have it, present it to the file,' he said. Hulusi Kentmen turned to him and said: 'Yes, the request is correct. You, this side, Özgür Özel says there is no diploma. You say there is. The lawyer also says present it. Will you present the diploma to the file?'

They said: 'We will not present it, we will write a petition.' They wrote a petition. The petition is this: 'Since our client wants to give the diploma, this judge has hostility towards our client; we do not accept, we want another judge.'

Now, it has been a month since this incident happened. We have been telling it everywhere for a month. Our lawyer still says present the diploma, the judge says present it; they say 'we won't give the diploma, change the judge'. Therefore, therefore I am calling out to Erdoğan: If, if there is a diploma, present the diploma and win the court case. If there is no diploma, be quiet; do not set a trap for those who have a diploma with a diploma that does not exist."

"WE ARE WHERE DENİZ GEZMİŞ AND HIS FRIENDS DUMPED THE 6TH FLEET INTO THE SEA, WHERE ARE YOU?"

"America and Israel want to establish a new world order. They want, they want to be able to attack any country they want. They want to occupy any place they want. They want to bring whoever they want to the head of that country. For this, they take state presidents from their bedrooms in the middle of the night and parade them in cages in New York. They attack another place with the world's missiles. But Israel and America killed 160 little girl students, innocent civilians in the recent attacks. The name of this order against this is not Trump and Netanyahu's new world order. The order is not such an order. The world is not such a world.

Those who remain silent to these two, who seek legitimacy from this, who seek support from Trump when they lose the support of the nation, are not from us, they are not someone we will accept. For this, I invite those who do politics centered on the Oval Office to do politics centered on Anatolia, centered on Palestine, centered on conscience and morality.

It is not possible to remain silent, to be silent to Trump, who says 'I saw Gaza, it's very beautiful, there is no place for Palestinians there, I will sweep them to the neighboring countries. I will build high hotels, casinos in Gaza. I will do tourism on the beaches in front of it. I will extract the hydrocarbons, natural gas in front of it. I want Gaza'. The consistent, principled leaders of Europe, the world —for example, my brother Pedro Sánchez— did not sit at the table he set up. He said 'Palestine belongs to the Palestinians'. But I warn those who sit at the table with Netanyahu where Palestine is not present, Erdoğan, Hakan Fidan, and I am calling out from here: We are where we stand. We are where the Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey, our third chairman Karaoğlan Ecevit, protected the Palestine Liberation Organization, Yaser Arafat. Where are you?"

CHP Istanbul Provincial Chairman Özgür Çelik used these expressions before reading İmamoğlu's letter:

"Hello Pendik, hello Istanbul! You are wonderful, welcome.

It will be exactly one year next week; a coup took place on Anatolian soil, here, on March 19. Since March 19, we have been showing great resistance in the squares of Istanbul and Turkey. You never left us alone, we thank each of you individually. Thank you, long live.

I thank our Pendik District Chairman Niyazi Güneri from the heart for bringing us together with you here today. We held our third district meeting, we held our second district meeting; today we are holding our first district meeting in Pendik. On March 18, we will all be in Saraçhane with hundreds of thousands. On March 18, will we all say 'justice' together in Saraçhane Square? Will we say 'freedom'? Will we say 'democracy'? Thank you.

Valuable Istanbulites; we are coming here from Silivri. On Monday, one of the biggest frame-up cases in Turkish political history began. I brought you greetings from Ekrem İmamoğlu from Silivri. I brought you greetings from Şişli Mayor Emrah Şahan. I brought you greetings from our Beylikdüzü Mayor Mehmet Murat Çalık. I brought you greetings from all our imprisoned fellow travelers, bureaucrats, and municipal workers.

We have been in Silivri for three days. Do you know what is in Silivri? There has been an injustice in Silivri for three days, there is lawlessness in Silivri, there is oppression against families. But do you know what is not in Silivri? There is never hopelessness. Our friends have been in that courtroom since Monday, smiling, resilient, their energy is very high; they are making their historical defenses.

There is never hopelessness because who do they trust? They trust you, they trust the nation. They say; 'Sooner or later, the ballot box will come before the nation and the nation will send this tyrannical government away all together.' They say it will send it away all together"

CHP Istanbul Provincial Chairman Özgür Çelik read İmamoğlu's letter.

"I WILL NOT MAKE A DEFENSE. BECAUSE THE PURPOSE OF THIS CASE IS NOT TO JUDGE ME, BUT TO DESTROY ME POLITICALLY"

İmamoğlu's letter is as follows:

“Valuable Pendik residents, my dear citizens, very valuable ladies, respectable gentlemen, brave young people and beautiful children… I greet each of you with love and respect. I embrace you with longing, with yearning. One year after being detained and arrested, the case filed against us has finally begun to be heard. I will not make a defense in the case. Because the purpose of this case is not to judge me, but to destroy me politically. The purpose of that case is not to seek the truth, to apply the law, but to build walls, barbed wire, iron bars between the nation and me. The case in Silivri has been planned for exactly 12 years. When I was elected Mayor of Beylikdüzü in 2014, I was the only politician in Istanbul to take a municipality from the hands of the AKP. We had opened the first big gap in the order of waste and rent they established; they were afraid. They saw that we could do much more; they were afraid.”

“I HAVE BEEN SUBJECTED TO ATTACKS FULL OF POLITICAL HATRED AND HOSTILITY FOR EXACTLY 12 YEARS”

“Since that day, for exactly 12 years, I have been subjected to attacks full of political hatred and hostility. I am being subjected to unfair and unlawful practices to an extent unprecedented in our history and in the world. They are doing everything they can to prevent me from serving the nation, to destroy me politically. So that I don't win new elections and become more of a trouble for them, they have been attacking with all the means at their disposal for 12 years. Every day of ours for 12 years has been spent dealing with their new evils. From the first day, they tried to intimidate me. They tried to show that they were ready to do all kinds of evil to finish me politically. When I was the Mayor of Beylikdüzü, I built a school, they said 'you cannot open it'. I built a mosque, they didn't give an imam. I built a police station, they pulled the police. The whole world knows how they became uglier and more aggressive when they lost the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality elections.”

"THE ATTACKS SHATTERED IN THE FACE OF THE NATION'S LOVE AND SUPPORT"

“But they failed. All those attacks full of hatred and hostility, which they carried out by abusing the state's means, shattered in the face of the nation's love and support. When Istanbulites gave us the duty again in 2024 with a difference of 1 million 100 thousand votes, the attacks they carried out through a handful of judiciary members they kept under pressure became even more rampant. They opened all sorts of investigations, lawsuits. They assigned special experts to show me as guilty. They appointed special prosecutors. They changed the places of the judges in all the cases filed against me. They canceled my diploma, detained me, arrested me. But they failed again. They could not erase me from the nation's heart. With 15.5 million votes, with the signatures of 25 million of our citizens, I stand tall before them as a presidential candidate and the elected Mayor of Istanbul. Not just me, all my friends are showing the same brave and determined stance.”

"THEIR LAST RESORT IS TO PUNISH ME AND MY FRIENDS AT ALL COSTS"

“Now they have only one last resort left: To punish me and my friends at all costs. The case in Silivri is the expression of this desperation of theirs. They targeted not only me and my friends; but also the Republic, democracy, human rights and freedoms, the reputation of the state, our social unity and brotherhood, the peace and prosperity of the nation. They lost their political and legal legitimacy with what they did to protect their power. They cannot judge me. I am judging them. Our history is full of such political cases. In such cases, the nation has the final say at the ballot box. The nation decides on such cases. Every government is void in the face of the nation's decision. In this country, sooner or later, whatever the nation says will happen. In this country, justice and freedom will prevail for everyone and everywhere. Everything will be very beautiful.

Ekrem İmamoğlu, Silivri Dungeon.”

News Source: 12punto