CHP Chairman Özgür Özel lashes out at Çerçioğlu and the AKP at the Aydın rally

The repercussions of CHP Aydın Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Özlem Çerçioğlu joining the AKP continue.

The CHP took its first serious step today with a rally held in Aydın. Addressing the crowd that filled the rally area at the Atatürk City Square, which began at 20:00, Özgür Özel spoke to the masses.

Citizens reacted very harshly to Çerçioğlu, who took the will of more than 300 thousand Aydın residents to another party.

While the road leading to the area was closed with barriers, citizens who wanted to attend the rally had to walk 2 kilometers to reach the area where the rally was held.

ÖZGÜR ÖZEL: AK PARTY MEMBERS ARE AT EACH OTHER'S THROATS

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel began his speech with Adnan Yücel's poem 'Until the Earth Becomes the Face of Love'.

Here are the highlights from CHP Chairman Özgür Özel's speech:

“I found you in the sublimity of a belief, I loved you in the beauty of a struggle. They pruned our tender branches a thousand times. They broke them a thousand times. Yet here we are in bloom, here we are in fruit. They drowned time in fear a thousand times, they sentenced it to death a thousand times. Yet here we are in birth. Here we are in joy. It is not over, that struggle continues and will continue. Until the earth becomes the face of love. O you who say ‘Everything is over’. You who suffer despair at the table of fear. Neither the flowers resisting in the fields, nor the anger growing in the cities. They have not said goodbye yet. It is not over, that struggle continues and will continue. Until the earth becomes the face of love. Our Aydın is the symbolic city of the national struggle. The date is June 16, 1919. Just one month after the Gazi's determined departure for Samsun following the occupation of İzmir, Atatürk's companions in this land, Yörük Ali Efe, Kıllıoğlu Hüseyin Efe, Kozalaklı Mehmet Efe, who resisted the occupiers in the Malgaç raid first with 17 militia, then with 60, and who won the first victory in Malgaç and became a hope for all of Anatolia, is Aydın. Aydın, the land of the Efes. We came to you. We came to embrace you. The Gazi never forgot this courage, this determination, this beginning of the Efes. He came to Aydın four times. He opened the Republic's Sümerbank Cotton Fabric Factory first in Aydın and earned this for Aydın as a medal of thanks, a medal of honor.”

“The Justice and Development Party closed this cotton factory, which was the Gazi's gift to Nazilli, as the first act of its government. Aydın has had an unsettled account with the Justice and Development Party and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan since that day. In every election, Aydın holds Erdoğan accountable for what he did, holds the AK Party accountable, but there is no one in front of it who can resist Aydın's will, who can show their power in Aydın, who can stand up to Aydın. That is why Aydın has been electing the candidate shown by the Republican People's Party for years. Aydın places its will in favor of the Republican People's Party. However, those who could not take Aydın last week, those who did everything and could not take Aydın, attempted to usurp the national will, to steal the national will, to hijack the will of Aydın. On the anniversary of their party's founding, they attempted to add a Republican People's Party Metropolitan Mayor to their party as a move that would supposedly demoralize the Republican People's Party, give themselves morale, and supposedly seize psychological superiority. Since that day, pens close to the government have hoped, ‘Has the psychology changed?’ They admit who has the superiority. ‘Will this morale lift the AK Party up?’ They know they are in ruins. They hoped, ‘Will this event lower the CHP's energy?’ At that moment I said, ‘We are going to Aydın. We will ask the nation. We will show Turkey Aydın, from Aydın.’”

“THE MAJORITY ENERGY IS WITH US”

“Let those who cannot find this crowd in this square, even when they gather the whole Aegean in this square with public power in their hands, all ministries at their command, in great competition days before the election in fancy campaigns, see. The moral superiority is with us. The psychological superiority is with us. The majority energy is with us. The will of Aydın is right here in this square. This square is the square of the nation. I said it before. We are going to the AK Party's strongholds. We are gathering incredible crowds in places called ‘AK Party strongholds’. I always said this; ‘The politics of polarization is over. The politics of strongholds is over. No place is anyone's stronghold. If there is a stronghold of ours, it is sacrificed to the nation,’ I said. I shout from here too: Look at this square; Aydın is the stronghold of the nation. It is the stronghold of the national will.”

“THE NATION IS RECALLING ITS TRUST”

“Allow a voice to rise from this square. A demand for ‘resignation’ is rising. This is not an ordinary demand for resignation. Let ears that do not hear, hear. The nation is recalling its trust. This voice is the voice of the nation, it wants its trust back. Because we are facing a political pickpocket. We are facing a political snatch-and-grab incident. Unfortunately, we are facing a helplessness that crowns a snatcher, a pickpocket as a ‘mayor’ in the Aegean, where they could not win a single municipality.”

“AK PARTY REMAINED WITHOUT MUNICIPALITIES IN THE AEGEAN”

“Let's summarize the situation. Since the March 31, 2024 local elections, the Republican People's Party has become Turkey's leading party as it was on the day it was founded, won municipalities in 65 percent of Turkey's population, and won all 9 of the 9 provinces in the Aegean that have municipalities. The Justice and Development Party, which used to mock the CHP by saying ‘You cannot go beyond Sivas’, remained without provincial and metropolitan municipalities in the Aegean. Since that day, a great conspiracy, a great attack has been launched on all our municipalities. Several firms across Turkey that frequently entered tenders in municipalities were first thrown into prison. Their assets were seized. Then the institution of slander, which is supposedly called ‘confession’, began. Know this, mayors of a few months were put in prisons even though they did not give any tenders, they only made payments from the previous AKP municipality. So much so that they sent the file of Alim Işık from Kütahya Municipality, one of the municipalities that worked most with this person in Turkey, to Kütahya. The municipality that worked the most, worked retrospectively, was Aydın Metropolitan Municipality. They spread this news, threatened the mayor, blackmailed.”

“I ASKED WHEN I BECAME AWARE”

“These are the criminal complaints made by the Justice and Development Party against Özlem Çerçioğlu, the 13 indictments prepared, their annexes, three giant folders. When she became aware of this and started to tremble, I asked: ‘Is there any account you cannot give?’ She said, ‘Normally no. But you cannot trust these people.’ I said, ‘If you trust yourself, we are the Republican People's Party, we do not get weary of files or slander, we stand behind you like a rock like every mayor.’ However, she could not show this courage we showed, this determination we showed, she was not ashamed of her friends lying inside, these mayors of ours behind me, each one the apple of this party's eye, each one more valuable than the other in the Aegean, Manisa, Uşak, Balıkesir, Muğla, İzmir, Denizli, Afyon and Kütahya... None of them bowed down, they will not. None of them ate forbidden food. None of them has anything to be ashamed of. They are blackmailing them too. They are threatening them too, but to those who tear off one of the 9 out of 9 Aegean Municipalities and attach a dirty lightbulb on it in a place like Aydın, in the land of the Efes, I say this: Wait for the will of Aydın. We will hold you accountable, we will hold you accountable.”

“WE ARE PROUD OF OUR MAYORS”

“We are proud of all our mayors. O Tayyip Erdoğan, while you were having dozens of volumes of indictments prepared to slander my mayors, I did not surrender to them. We did not surrender. Our friends did not surrender. But you condescended to pin a badge on someone for whom you had three folders of files prepared in order to take a municipality you could not win. You are greedy, you are helpless, you are pathetic. The CHP is brave, honest, and determined in politics. The Justice and Development Party's politics today is greedy. It is helpless. It is pathetic. We were the second party for 47 years, we did not condescend. The AK Party has been winning for 23 years, we did not condescend. We won, there are 47 months until the elections. Those who could not even last 47 days, those who got off the democracy train on March 31, those who attempted a coup on March 19, should know one thing. The boss is neither Erdoğan nor Özgür Özel. There is only one boss. And that is the nation. And that is in this square. To the one who surrendered to the discourse of ‘Either get thrown in jail or join my party’ with a thick investigation file placed in front of her, to the one who bargained for her husband's company, to the one who soared on the stock market when her bankrupt company switched to the AK Party, I have one word. Shame on you.”

“AK PARTY IS RUNNING ON THE RIM”

“Let me tell the Justice and Development Party this much. To those who were founded as a ‘movement of the virtuous’ years ago, who today take refuge in blackmail and threats, who do not come out of the ballot box to win a municipality in the Aegean but come out of a conspiracy, I say this. The tires of the Justice and Development Party have burst, the tire is flat. You are running on the rim, on the rim. Politics running on the rim arrives at the ballot box it will lose, if anything. There is no further. Without spending more time on this subject than it deserves, I only say this. Were you not ashamed at all of Mehmet Murat Çalık, who is lying in prison in a sick state, of Oya Tekin, who was torn from her child and thrown into a cell, of the Kadriyes, the Elifs, the Pınars? Were you not ashamed at all of the 38 female mayors? The day will come when history will write about the 8 brave people behind me, the 415 brave people in the Republican People's Party, our 2 million brave members, the 15.5 million March 23 heroes who stood behind Ekrem İmamoğlu with courage, the honorable, clean, each one braver than the other, people of the Republic of Turkey who will not fear the AK Party and will send them away in the election.”

“YOU ARE NO LONGER ON AYDIN'S AGENDA”

“I am throwing these cowards into the trash bin of history. To those who say ‘They bumped into me’ while walking on the road, to those who say ‘These are impolite, incompetent, ugly people’, to those who call you ‘two-faced’ and insult you, to those who gave you your mandate in the cafeteria, to those who insult you at every opportunity, you were afraid and took refuge, you ran away, stay in the trash bin of history, you are no longer on Aydın's agenda. You ran away because you were afraid. But from now on, you will continue to be afraid because you ran away. And we will be after you. I am addressing Erdoğan, who hijacked Aydın. You could not win Aydın for 20 years, and you will never win it again. Our council members, our 10 mayors are standing tall. In this process, the municipal council majority in Aydın belongs to the Republican People's Party. The election results are clear. The government of Aydın is the Republican People's Party. Now, from this magnificent square, this square where you cannot drop a needle, if the drones are ready, if the mobile phones are ready, we have a surprise for Turkey. Let the lights shine. Greetings to our Aydın deputies on the bus, our provincial chairman, all our Aydın mayors, my Aegean Efe mayors, my metropolitan and provincial mayors, to the Land of the Efes. Now one person named Efe, a so-called Efe, has run away, a broken-heeled Efe is looking here from behind the glass, while 100,000s of Efes are looking across at the Aydın Metropolitan Municipality. That building does not belong to the usurpers of national will, political snatchers, political pickpockets, it belongs to you, the people of Aydın. That building is yours.”

“LET'S PUT THE BALLOT BOX IN AYDIN, I DARE YOU”

“I would like to summarize this night for all the viewers watching us on their televisions across Turkey. The tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands in Aydın are shouting ‘Özlem resign’, and I am explaining my point as I intervene. Health to all your mouths, health to all your mouths. O Tayyip Erdoğan, hundreds of thousands in Aydın want their votes back. Hundreds of thousands in Aydın want their trust back. I am making a call to Erdoğan from here. If you have the courage, whether by a decision to be taken here, by emptying the municipal council and all its alternates, or by doing what is necessary in the parliament with a decision we will take together. I dare you. Let's renew the Aydın elections. I dare you. I dare you. I dare you to those who claim that the AK Party is gaining strength with this so-called transfer and political pickpocketing. Let's put the ballot box in Aydın. Erdoğan's candidate is clear. Erdoğan's candidate is a political snatcher, a political pickpocket. I am announcing the Republican People's Party's candidate. Erdoğan, your candidate is that political pickpocket, snatcher. Whether you renew the election now or do it two, three years later, I am announcing my candidate too. Should I announce it? The Republican People's Party's candidate is all the people of Aydın in this square. All the people of Aydın. Our struggle in Aydın is not an individual struggle, an individual success. All the Efes of Aydın, whoever came and cast their honest vote for the Six Arrows in the farthest village of the farthest district of Aydın, whoever is in this square or whoever's conscience did not accept this injustice, that is the Aydın Metropolitan candidate in the first election. It is you, it is you all.”

“THE INCENTIVE THAT WAS 16 LIRAS IN 1998 IS 1 LIRA TODAY”

“Those who try to take the municipality they could not win in the elections with bribery, blackmail, and pickpocketing; they do not keep any of the promises they made to Aydın. First, agricultural frost hit Aydın. Then drought burned the products. 50 percent of the lands could not be irrigated this season. Unfortunately, we are at such a point that the farmer is left completely to his fate. Tomatoes, watermelons remained in the field. On the other hand, costs in cotton doubled, prices remained the same. They are opening mines in olive groves. Unfortunately, there are 45 mining exploration licenses and 208 operating licenses in Aydın. And in the past, incentives were given for olives in cents. 40 cents per liter, 16 liras in today's money. Whereas today they give 1 lira per liter of olive oil. The incentive, which was 16 liras when it was first given in 1998, has fallen to 1 lira today. Turkey is the world leader in fig production, and Aydın is Turkey's leader. But unfortunately, drought hits the figs, humidity rots them, flies eat them. Geothermal disrupts the balance of all of Aydın. The dust of the mines ruins the quality of the figs. Last year, tons of our products were returned because of aflatoxin. And no one turns to look at the face of the fig producer. I am saying it clearly from here. Unless a President who does not say ‘Take your mother and go’ to the farmer and villager who complains and rebels like Tayyip Erdoğan, but one who says ‘The villager is the master of the nation’ becomes President, unless his party comes to power; neither figs nor cotton nor other products nor olives will make money, none of our faces will smile. Are we ready to send away the one who says ‘Take your mother and go’, and bring the one who will say ‘The villager is the master of the nation’? Are we ready? This is where all our march, all our determination lies. Against those who forget and turn their backs on Aydın, from the high-speed train promised to Aydın to the inter-district roads, the airport and air transport promises made to Aydın, the city hospital they could not build, or the police headquarters that has been sitting in a school for five years, as the Republican People's Party; it is our duty to keep all these promises when the Republican People's Party comes to power, both for what we have done so far and because you challenged a national will theft tonight with this magnificent square. Your Chairman is the guarantor, our word is our bond.”

“WE ARE BEHIND THE CIVIL SERVANTS SEEKING THEIR RIGHTS”

“First of all, let's give a heartfelt applause to the heroic Turkish police who work here today, work on election day, work on match day, work at the rally, work at the protest, work during the pandemic. Let's give a huge applause to the health workers who work here today and who risked their own lives during the pandemic to save us all. And again, greetings to all the civil servants of our state who work for all of us in any capacity, who are civil servants of this state, who break their backs, who pour their heart and soul, or who work in any kind of duty. In 2002, while the lowest civil servant salary was 14.5 quarter gold, today their lowest civil servant salary is 6 quarter gold. And today, while salary negotiations are being held for the civil servants of the Republic of Turkey, shame on this government that offers a 10 percent raise for the first six months, 6 percent for the second six months, and a 1000 lira raise this year, despite Tayyip Erdoğan's promise of an 8 thousand lira flat raise last year, despite the inflation. Today, civil servant unions have risen up and are rebelling. We are with all civil servants and their unions who object to this government and seek their rights, regardless of their views. We are behind them. Let us all know this. Do not look at those they pit against each other. The police will not be saved until the student is saved. The tradesman will not be saved until the farmer is saved. The laborer will not be saved until the civil servant is saved. The retiree will not be saved until the laborer is saved. There is no salvation alone, either all together or none of us. Today we are together for the 47th protest. There is a certain limit. If we reach a certain volume level for salvation all together, this bus also joins us. Now let me hear it all together. ‘There is no salvation alone, either all together or none of us.’ Now let them think. O Tayyip Erdoğan, if you have this much courage, if you have received your share of democracy, if you have this much shame for Aydın, bring the ballot box, let Aydın decide who will be the mayor…”

“ERDOĞAN LOVES THE RICH”

“People of Aydın, does Tayyip Erdoğan love you? Why? You are poor, poor. Tayyip Erdoğan loves the rich, the rich. He loves the gang of five, the 40 thieves, the pro-government contractors, those who cut down olives and mine. Tayyip Erdoğan is the one who loves the rich, who eyes the 6 quarter gold of the retiree who received 8 quarter gold salary when he came. He does not love the retiree. Tayyip Erdoğan, who makes the minimum wage earner work below the hunger line, does not love the poor, does not love the laborer. But that Tayyip Erdoğan knows how to squander all of Turkey's assets for his own future with the coup attempt he embarked on 152 days ago. 160 million dollars. Exactly 100 times the support paid to the farmer in a year. 160 million dollars, 120 times the minimum wage raise. 160 million dollars, exactly 150 times the raise given to the retiree, he burdened us all with the coup he made against Mayor Ekrem, the rise of the dollar at the end of that coup, the reserves he burned to stop the outflow of money, and the interest cost he created. In the first six months, this country paid 1.1 trillion liras in interest. This means this. He built one Eurasia Tunnel in 23 years. He boasts about it. 22 Eurasia Tunnels in six months... He built 1 Yavuz Sultan Selim bridge in 23 years. He paid for 18 Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridges in interest alone in the first six months. When it comes to the retiree, there is none. There is none for the minimum wage earner. There is none for the civil servant today, but there is for the coup, there is for the interest. We want to address Turkey from here, from this magnificent crowd in Aydın. Exactly 152 days ago, Tayyip Erdoğan said, ‘The biggest radish is in the saddlebag. Wait. In less than a month, they won't be able to look each other in the face, they won't be able to look into the eyes of their spouses, their families.’ Now, in the past few days, I announced the IMM stock market. There are judges, prosecutors, lawyers everywhere in the world. People hire lawyers, whether they are guilty or innocent. Only in Turkey do prosecutors hire lawyers. By directing the innocent to threats, blackmail, slander, and release in exchange for money, they are both polluting the defense profession and polluting Turkey with a few rotten apples within the glorious, beautiful, one of the world's most sacred professions, the legal profession.”

“AK PARTY MEMBERS ARE AT EACH OTHER'S THROATS”

“We exposed one of these last week in Tuzla, and another one in the past few days with a press conference. Mücahit Birinci, who serves on the AK Party's MKYK, Central Decision and Executive Board. He goes at 24:00 at night. He puts down a 1.5-page slander document. What is not in it? Slander against the party, slander against Mayor Ekrem. Slander against honest people, mayors. And he says, ‘Give 2 million dollars. The Prosecutor will get you out next week.’ Now I exposed this shameless person. They did not feel sorry because it was a founding anniversary gift. They played dumb. They said, ‘Well, what can we do, it's between lawyer and client.’ Whereas we gave the documents, allegations, and record transcripts to the HSK. Now yesterday we looked, one is the AK Party, while they were trying to throw Mücahit Birinci, the lunatic lawyer whose father is their number one ideologue, out of the AK Party, he jumped out of the AK Party himself. They are accusing each other. They are at each other's throats. Today one says, ‘I will tell what I know. I will talk about attorney fees, is the fault mine?’ One insults the other on social media. The other insults the other. Now in Aydın, the Aydın Metropolitan Municipality that you won with the honest votes of all of you, which Tayyip Erdoğan is trying to hijack. In front of me, the eyes of over 100 thousand open-faced, brave, beautiful people. I am saying it while looking into your eyes. Tayyip Erdoğan, I am looking into the faces of these beautiful people, about whom he said 152 days ago ‘They won't be able to look into each other's eyes or faces in a month’, and I say ‘Our friends are innocent. The accusations are slander. It is a set-up. Tayyip Erdoğan is greedy, a conspirator, a coup plotter. He is a usurper of national will. He is a political pickpocket.’ Are you looking into each other's faces? Do you love each other? Do you trust your party? Do you trust the mayors? While the CHP is in this state, AK Party members are cursing each other. They are digging each other's graves. They are falling out with each other. Thank God the moral superiority is with us. The psychological superiority is with us. The majority energy is with us. This means we will win, we will win, we will win. Let's call out from Aydın. ‘O Erdoğan, I am the nation. I am the national will. Leave my candidate, bring the ballot box. I want my candidate by my side, the ballot box in front of me.’ I dare you. I dare you. I dare you.”

“‘WE ARE AFRAID THAT IF THIS KID MAKES A DEFENSE, WE WILL BE SMOKED IN COURT’...”

“On one side is Mehmet Pehlivan, who is watching us from Çorlu tonight, you know, right? Mayor Ekrem's tall, handsome, hardworking lawyer. The one who knows this gang best, the one who scares this gang the most, the one they fear saying ‘If this kid makes a defense, we will be smoked in court’... One day they called this friend to the courthouse. Mehmet Pehlivan entered the courthouse, smiling at the press, playing with something in his hand, chatting. He waited at the prosecutor's door. They took him, he went in. They arrested him and put him inside. They said, ‘There is a suspicion of flight.’ Whereas he came on his own feet. Just last week, two weeks ago on Wednesday, the lawyer sent by the prosecutor we exposed in Tuzla hung up the phone when we spoke. He jumped into his friend's car, and while he was going to escape from Kaş to Meis, to the Greek Island, he was caught in Kepez, Antalya. He was brought to Istanbul, and without being kept in the police station for a night, they are arresting the other lawyers. They shouldn't arrest them, but they are arresting them. He was brought without being kept for a night, brought before the prosecutor, and given house arrest. Because they said, ‘The lower limit of the crime is low, there is a ban on arrest.’ Whereas the penalty for the crime he committed is 7.5 years. Our handsome Mehmet's is 4 years. Mehmet comes on his own feet, to prison for suspicion of flight. The other one is caught while escaping to the Greek Island, ‘You sit at home.’ O Minister of Justice who will be the HSK President. I say, as long as you behave like this, you are a photograph of the Minister of Justice hanging on the wall between Akın Gürlek and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. You are a decoration, you are not a minister. You are a decoration. O Minister of Justice, o Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor Akın Gürlek. On one side a ban on arrest for 7.5 years, on the other side arrest for 4 years, is that so? You let the one who escapes stay at home, and you keep the one who comes on his own feet in prison because there is a suspicion of flight, is that so? You have nothing to say to these.”

“THE AK TOROSLAR GANG HAS LOST ITS MIND”

“And finally, this AK Toroslar gang has completely lost its mind. Fatih Keleş, who was threatened with his brother and older brother, then his nephew, and finally his 26-year-old son, who was exiled to distant prisons, who was brought alone every now and then and taken for persuasion without a lawyer, forced into slander, finally today, according to the headlines of the Sabah newspaper for two days, supposedly Fatih Keleş, a diamond like Fatih Keleş, supposedly hired a hitman to silence these slanderers, supposedly hired a contract killer to eliminate them. The person they say he will hire a contract killer is Selahattin Yılmaz. Let everyone know that; we do not see, know, or recognize this person, nor have we ever been side by side. However, he is the apple of the MHP's eye. He is a relative of the MHP Deputy Chairmen. He is a relative of Devlet Bey. Let all of Turkey hear from here that because Devlet Bahçeli said ‘Enough, the cases have dragged on too long. It is harming Turkey. Finish it as soon as possible’, the AK Toroslar gang is also setting the MHP. I have said it many times from these squares. For now, the CHP is the target of this March 19 coup attempt. But the real target is civil politics. Today it is the CHP, tomorrow it will be the MHP, the next day it will be the AK Party. I am addressing Erdoğan from here. You cannot get rid of this disgrace by referring the lunatic Mücahit Birinci to discipline and throwing him out of the party. If you have the courage, you will remove the AK Toroslar gang, you will send honest and competent prosecutors. You will broadcast it on TRT. The nation will listen to the slander, and hear the answer. We have no account that cannot be given, no mayor with a stained forehead, no one with dirty hands. There is no party of a thief. There is no politics of a thief. May God curse all thieves a thousand times. Will you continue to protect honest and upright people? Will you protect the Republic 100 years later, just as you did 100 years ago? Will you protect the ballot box, the national will?”

“THOSE WHOSE CONSCIENCE DID NOT ALLOW, RAN AND CAME TO THE FATHER'S HOME”

“In Aydın, those who ran away are pressuring municipal workers to resign from the party. I thank all the people of Aydın from here. They heard this, their consciences did not allow it. They ran and came to the father's home. And they came to the Republican People's Party and said, ‘Since they are doing that, I want to register with the party.’ Membership registration forms ran out at the Aydın provincial headquarters and in the districts. Today we brought membership registration forms in the trunks of our vehicles from Ankara. People of Aydın, the provincial building is yours from tomorrow, the district building is yours. The Republican People's Party is your father's home. And all the democrats of Aydın are invited to their father's home, whose door is wide open. The name on the title deed is clear. It is neither Özgür Özel nor anyone else. The title deed of the father's home is registered to one person. Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. I thank the 2,400 new Efes who ran to the party and became members in one week from the bottom of my heart, welcome. I invite the people of Aydın to challenge this political pickpocketing by registering with the Republican People's Party starting tomorrow. I invite everyone to become a member of the Republican People's Party to certify the AK Party's exhaustion and the CHP's march to power throughout Turkey. Are we ready to walk together and march to power? Will we walk together? Will we all march to power together? Come on then, let's walk, friends.”

EKREM İMAMOĞLU: THIS GOVERNMENT CANNOT SOLVE ANY OF OUR COUNTRY'S PROBLEMS

CHP Aydın Provincial Chairman Hikmet Saatcı read the letter of the imprisoned presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu:

“Greetings to Aydın, the land of brave Efes and big-hearted Zeybeks. Precious ladies, gentlemen, youth, and children of beautiful Aydın; hello! I embrace you with love, respect, and longing. We all long to live fraternally in a Turkey where justice, freedom, and abundance prevail. Politics is the tool to end this longing of our nation and to realize this hope. But if it is done by going outside the law and democracy, politics does not solve problems, it creates problems. Turkey is at such a point today. The government's understanding of politics, which ignores justice and national will, is the most important factor that creates and grows the problems we experience as a nation. Unless it returns to the path of law and democracy, this government cannot solve any of our country's problems. On the contrary, it makes them even bigger, even heavier.”

“IF WE CANNOT GET RID OF MAFIA-STYLE POLITICS; GANGSTERISM WILL PREVAIL IN EVERY AREA OF OUR LIVES”

“‘Mafia-style politics’ based on judicial conspiracies, slander, and blackmail is the most urgent problem our country needs to solve. We are obliged to show that handful of people that they cannot protect their seats with mafia methods and that our great nation will never allow such a disgrace. This is a national duty that we must succeed together for the sake of the future of our country and our state, going beyond all political divisions. If we do not make democratic politics prevail and cannot get rid of mafia-style politics; gangsterism will prevail in every area of our lives. Unfortunately, Turkey is in such a process. In the judiciary, in health, in education, in every area you can think of, gangs are drawing strength from mafia-style politics.”

“THEY HAVE SHRUNK SO MUCH IN THE HEART OF THE NATION AND BEFORE HISTORY THAT...”

“The upcoming election will end all gangs, small and large; Turkey will be cleaned from top to bottom. There may be those who cannot stand tall against mafia-style politics and turn the office given by the nation into a subject of bargaining, those who betray the will of the nation. They have shrunk so much in the heart of the nation and before history that they can only stain themselves from this hour on. Our job is not to deal with stains or dust particles. Our goal is to clean all state institutions from looting, incompetence, and partisanship. Our goal is to make Turkey a country of justice, freedom, and abundance. We will never give up on this goal. With perseverance and determination, with the power of our nation, we will definitely succeed.”

“A HANDFUL OF PEOPLE WILL LOSE, THE NATION WILL WIN”

“In this heavenly homeland, we will live together fraternally, without suffering the trouble of making a living, without worrying about the future. We will provide justice and freedom not only for some, but for everyone, everywhere. For everyone, everywhere; justice first, freedom first! Our path is the path of the Great Leader Atatürk, who said, ‘A government can only rely on justice. Independence, future, freedom, everything exists with justice.’ No power could turn us from our path, and it will not be able to. No power can stand against a change whose time has come. We will walk towards our goal with a perseverance that grows step by step, with a courage that grows step by step, and we will succeed as a nation. A handful of people will lose, the nation will win. Everything will be very beautiful. Ekrem İmamoğlu. Silivri Prison.”

News Source: 12punto