CHP Chairman Özgür Özel speaks at his party's 'Grand Pensioners' Rally'

Following the Grand Education Rally held last week, it was the turn of the Republican People's Party (CHP) to hold the Grand Pensioners' Rally.

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel will meet with retired citizens struggling with the cost of living at Ankara's Tandoğan Square today at 14:00.

In a previous statement, Özel had said, “From now on, the CHP will have thematic rallies. We will be on the streets for everyone who has a problem, for everyone who has been wronged. We will voice their democratic rights in the squares.”

In a post on his social media account, Özel included the words, “The Republican People's Party will secure the rights of the pensioners!”

Buses were dispatched from all 39 districts of Istanbul for the CHP's pensioners' rally.

SOME ROADS IN ANKARA CLOSED TO TRAFFIC

The Ankara Police Department announced that some roads would be closed to traffic due to the rally.

According to the statement made by the Ankara Police Department, due to the “Grand Pensioners' Rally” to be held on Sunday, May 26, between 13:00 and 17:00, starting from 22:00 today, if necessary, the section of Anıt Street between Turgut Reis Street and Anadolu Square, all streets and avenues opening onto it, and the entire variant connecting GMK Boulevard to Kazım Karabekir Street will be closed to two-way traffic.

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel is speaking at his party's ''Grand Pensioners' Rally''.

Highlights from Özel's remarks are as follows:

''WE FORMED THE TURKEY ALLIANCE TOGETHER''

''The pension salaries announced at the beginning of this year showed a new trauma and an approaching disaster. On January 19, we were 1,000 people in a 600-person hall at the Republican People's Party Headquarters. We talked and shared our troubles together. I gave you a promise that day. I said; 'In every speech where I take the microphone, I will voice this great injustice and unfairness.' We went through a huge election period. I took the stage in 105 squares, climbed on top of the bus, took the microphone in my hand, and voiced the troubles and problems of the pensioners. In those squares, we formed the Turkey Alliance together with you.

''YOU ARE THE OWNERS OF THIS!''

At first, there were few pensioners. We spoke, we called, and you came. You took ownership of your own cause. There came a day when our rally turned into a pensioners' rally, and all of Turkey heard and talked about your problems. If you can't drop a pin in this great square in Ankara today, you are the owners of this! Welcome, welcome...!

This square is Turkey's largest choir of pensioners. Listen and see. How they sing the saddest song in the world!

Do you hear the 10 thousand TL? This is the saddest song sung by the world's largest choir. We explained it, we voiced it. We said, 'If you do not solve the pensioners' problems, from now on, the squares and the streets are ours.'

''HE THINKS I SPOKE INCORRECTLY''

They will either hear this voice or, as I promised, I will not stop, I will not be silent. I will definitely make your voice heard by all of Turkey. I will take your rights by force. This government had declared 2024 the year of the pensioner. They set the lowest pension salary to be given on January 1, 2024, at 10 thousand TL. I go abroad. I talk to the German Chancellor. I say, 'The pension salary in Turkey is 270 euros.' He thinks I spoke incorrectly. He says, 'Could it not be 2700 euros?' Shame on those who condemn you to a pension salary that has no translation in German or English.

''SHAME ON YOU''

We are the children of 4 pensioners. Those pensioners used to be able to buy a house with their retirement bonuses when they retired in the past. Then they couldn't buy a house, it fell to a car. Now, shame on those who give a motorcycle bonus for years of labor.

''HANS THE PENSIONER COMES FROM GERMANY''

Hans the pensioner gets up and comes from Germany. He comes to Manavgat for a vacation, but Uncle Hasan from Manavgat is afraid to go to the market. He is ashamed to pass by because he has debts. Shame on those who deny Hasan the life that Hans lives.

''PENSIONERS ARE NOT WORRIED ABOUT STAYING IN DORMITORIES''

They say they will turn student dormitories with a total capacity of 65 thousand into pensioner guesthouses in the summer months. They are mocking us. The pensioner says, 'I am hungry.' They say, 'Go to the dormitory and have a vacation.' The pensioner cannot go out on the street. He says, 'Go to the dormitory in Çeşme.' Suppose the entire capacity was used. Only 1 in 250 pensioners could go. Actually, no pensioner can go. Pensioners are not worried about staying in a dormitory. They are worried about paying their own rent and feeding themselves. If you pay house rent with the money you give, you will go hungry; if you feed yourself, you will be left on the street. Shame on this system. We will change this.

''I WILL HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE''

When this government came to power, the lowest pension salary was 1.5 times the minimum wage. If they hadn't messed with you at all, you would be receiving a pension salary of 26 thousand liras today instead of 10 thousand liras. I will hold those who reduced it from 26 thousand liras to 10 thousand liras accountable. You held those who brought the pensioner to this state accountable on March 31. If they do not hear your voice, you will hold them to a greater account at the first ballot box.

Those who went as interns at a child's age, whose insurance started, whose money was deposited, who went to apprenticeship school, whose insurance was paid by the state, but now when they come, they are told 'we won't start it from that day' and are not retired, the victims of internship and apprenticeship...

Those who started work in 1999 and would have retired last year if they had retired one day earlier, but were pushed back 17 years because they were one day late...

Those waiting for a tier in retirement...

We hear their voices too.

“THE GHOST OF THE IMF IS WANDERING”

The money paid to a total of 16 million pensioners and 32 million workers, 48 million people, is much less than what is paid for interest in the budget. The total monthly salaries of pensioners correspond to only 5 percent of the national income. While some were saying to the EYT (Retirement Age Victims) members, 'I swear I won't do it,' they retired them when they saw the election slipping away, but they made the existing pensioners pay the salaries of those new pensioners. In every economic crisis, in every austerity measure, pensioners, laborers, the poor, and the needy come to everyone's mind. They supposedly don't work with the IMF. If it were the IMF, it would say, 'Do not give a raise to the pensioner,' and they don't. It would say, 'Do not appoint the teacher,' and they don't.

They are making the poor tighten their belts. There is a monster among us. It is not the IMF, but the ghost of the IMF is wandering among us. Mehmet Şimşek, listen to me. Take this monster and take it to the Palace. Get off the pensioner's back now, and take a little bit from the rich too.

HE LISTED HIS DEMANDS FOR PENSIONERS

Let us make it a legal regulation that the lowest pension salary can never be less than the minimum wage in any period.

Let us increase the premium update coefficient, the monthly accrual rate, and the lower limit of monthly salaries to a fair extent.

Closure cases aimed at intimidating pensioner unions must be withdrawn.

Holiday bonuses should be increased to the level of the minimum wage.

Pensioners' prescription co-payments should be reduced.

A Pensioner Card should be issued, and a discount of between 25 percent and 40 percent should be applied to electricity, natural gas, and water bills.

The transportation problem for those over 65 should be solved through the state's pocket by law, in a way that will never offend any of our pensioners again, while also considering the tradesmen drivers.

The practice of deducting SGK support premiums from pensioners who have to work should be ended, and pensioners' credit and credit card debts should be divided into five years with all interest waived on a one-time basis.''

News Source: 12punto