CHP Chairman Özel: What is halal for the AK Party is not haram for us

CHP leader Özel said in his speech there, “My very precious workers of our Şişli Municipality, my very valuable friends, dear colleagues and fellow travelers of Resul Emrah Şahan, I greet you all with respect. I wish you all a speedy recovery.” Özel stated the following:

'THE WILL OF ŞİŞLİ IS UNDER DETENTION'

“We came to Istanbul the moment we heard the news yesterday. We are protecting Saraçhane, which was entrusted to Mayor Ekrem in our Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. His trust is a trust to us by him. The Şişli Municipality, this beautiful city, this beautiful district, was entrusted to Resul Emrah Şahan in the elections. Now, unfortunately, the will of Şişli is under detention, he himself is under detention. You are also protecting his trust.

I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Thank you, long live. I will visit his family shortly. You are his family here as well. We are his family in politics. I have known Resul Emrah Şahan for years. God is my witness, when his candidacy for the Şişli mayoralty came before me, you might have liked it very much, but I didn't like it at all. I said, ‘Look, shouldn't someone this talented, this well-educated, who has made incredible contributions to the party's politics and the politics of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, be doing much more important tasks instead of being in a district municipality?’ Then we thought about it among ourselves. It will be very good for Şişli and he will be more prepared for the future with local government experience. I told our Istanbul Provincial Chairman Özgür Çelik, ‘Okay, okay, let's do it. Hopefully, we will make him a minister after the general elections.’ If you gather this Tayyip Bey's Council of Ministers, multiply it by two, and it makes one Resul Emrah Şahan, then come and ask me.”

“WE SAID ‘WE ARE ONE AND TOGETHER AGAINST THE POWER’”

“They are trying to hold Resul Emrah Şahan responsible for terrorism and this and that through the ‘city consensus.’ I am saying it clearly here. The issue you call city consensus, DEM had brought such a term to this. What it says is, ‘We will field candidates where we are strong. Where we are not, we will seek a city consensus. We can reach a city consensus with those we believe will build teams that will not surrender the city to rent, will make it a resilient city, and will represent the sociology of the city.’ If you only did such a thing with DEM, maybe it would have a name, but we sought this consensus with AK Party voters, former MHP members, previous term MHP members, and IYI Party members. We called it the ‘Istanbul Alliance’ and the ‘Şişli Alliance’ in its entirety.

We said, ‘Social democrats, conservative democrats, nationalist democrats, Kurdish democrats, all democrats of Şişli, Istanbul, and Turkey are together. We are one and together against this power.’ I am saying it clearly here. DEM called it ‘city consensus,’ we called it the Istanbul Alliance with a broader perspective. Now I am announcing it here for the first time. In these lists of ours, there are those who served in the AK Party in the previous term. In some lists, in some provinces and districts, there are former idealists (ülkücüler). In some places, there are those who have served in other political parties, in DEM, in IYI Party before. But in the end, they represent a mass and bring votes from there.”

“IT IS NOT A CRIME WHEN THEY PUT IT, IT IS A CRIME WHEN WE PUT IT”

“It was the central decision of the Republican People's Party that names who are AK Party, IYI Party, MHP, or DEM supporters but accepted to enter this election from the Republican People's Party lists and would provide strong representation should be included in the lists throughout Turkey. I wrote a letter. That judge, that prosecutor, will definitely be given the letter we wrote to the district presidencies years ago, months ago, by the lawyers tomorrow. It exists in all districts in Turkey. It says, ‘We did not make an alliance with political parties this term, we could not.

We will make an alliance at the ballot box, an alliance with the voter. Therefore, people from all parties and all views will be put on the lists according to the structure, identity, and sociology of the city and district. We determined these types of names with our party inspectors, the deputies we sent to the field, with the surveys we had conducted, and with the field studies that came to us before, and we sent them. I tell the district chairman, ‘The mayors may not want to put these names on the lists. Because he wants it to be a name he knows, from his own team.

I swear, we will implement the party's disciplinary provisions against those who resist these lists. In other words, let no one resist the Turkey alliance, the Istanbul alliance, the Şişli alliance, in accordance with the decision taken and sent by the headquarters. We have woven a great consensus for a great success at the ballot box. We do not leave this to the personal preferences of the mayors. We said, ‘Be disciplined.’ Therefore, oh Erdoğan, oh Akın Gürlek, if you are going to hold someone accountable for this, you will ask me, not the mayors, me. You will hold me accountable for someone who has served as a district chairman in DEM in the past in the city consensus and associate my mayor with terrorism, but there is an AK Party district chairman on the same list, there are former MHP provincial executives. It is not a crime when they put it, it is a crime when we put it.”

“NOW THE PROCESS YOU ARE IN, WHAT PROCESS IS IT? THERE IS NO SINCERITY IN THEM”

“That is why I am saying it very clearly. The smear they are trying to cast on Mayor Emrah and our other mayors, I swear, let them not try to smear the filth that Tayyip Erdoğan is buried in up to his throat, not even in his own hands, onto us. We are in favor of peace and brotherhood. Tomorrow is Nevruz, we do not want conflict, we do not want terrorism, we do not want martyrs. We do not want mothers to cry. That is why we support whoever takes a step towards peace. Well, my brother, you are in a process now, what process is that? Devlet Bahçeli standing up and extending a hand, then various stages. Now, at the point we have reached, praising Abdullah Öcalan, being with them…

Look, let me even say this, until the last holiday, we were the only party among the parties with a group in the Parliament that celebrated the holiday with DEM. The AK Party does not celebrate, the MHP does not celebrate. We were the only ones. They were telling us ‘You are getting DEM-ed.’ This holiday, both MHP and AK Party are celebrating with DEM, they are not celebrating with us. Do you see this now? That is why there is no sincerity in them.

If Resul Emrah Şahan became the implementer of a decision taken within a cooperation with a decision we took in the local elections, if you are holding him accountable, who will you hold accountable for the cooperation made in Ankara and Imralı today? Can such a thing happen? That is why what is halal for the AK Party is not haram for us, what is permissible for them is not reprehensible for us.

I hope that the result will be achieved in this attempt that the Justice and Development Party and the MHP are undertaking. Let no one be demonized. But no one can criminalize talking, chatting, and seeking a consensus with the deputies of a party that has received a clean record from the state and entered the elections, let alone a founder of a terrorist organization, even a year ago. You cannot explain this to me, to anyone's conscience in Turkey, or to Europe. I spoke about the diploma in Saraçhane, I am speaking. I wanted to talk about Mayor Emrah and his situation here. I learned that you gather here in the evenings and look at Saraçhane all together. This evening, I will send greetings to you from Saraçhane with nearly one hundred thousand of your comrades. I greet you all with respect. Thank you, long live.”

News Source: 12punto