CHP Leader Özgür Özel warns AKP and MHP members: 'You will be complicit in treachery'

The CHP is continuing its 'Defending the National Will' rallies, which it launched following the arrest of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) Mayor and presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu.

The new venue for these rallies was Gaziosmanpaşa, where the mayor was arrested in the 5th wave of operations targeting CHP-run municipalities. The rally, which began at 8:30 PM, was held at Gaziosmanpaşa Republic Square.

CHP Istanbul Provincial Chair Özgür Çelik read the message sent by IMM Mayor and presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu from Silivri.

İmamoğlu's message is as follows:

"Dear residents of Gaziosmanpaşa. My kind-hearted, brave fellow citizens. We are going through difficult times. The will of the nation is under attack. Our democracy is fighting for survival. The rule of law has been destroyed, and justice is gasping for air. Even under these most severe conditions, none of us feels fear or despair. Because we know that what we are experiencing today is the final struggle of a government whose time is up. They have accounts they cannot answer to the nation. That is why they are afraid, but we are not afraid, we do not give up. Because we are right and we are strong.

We are not afraid, we do not give up, because there is not a single account we cannot answer to the nation. And there is not a single account that our Avcılar Mayor Utku Caner Çaykara cannot answer either. Hakan and Utku are our very valuable young friends who have been serving as mayors for a year. Just like them, there is not a single account that our Büyükçekmece Mayor Hasan Akgün, a doyen of local government with 30 years of experience, cannot answer.

There is not a single account that our Ceyhan Mayor Kadir Aydar, our Seyhan Mayor Oya Tekin, and all our other arrested mayors and employees cannot answer.

We are people who do not shy away from being judged in independent courts that decide on behalf of the nation. As long as the goal is to reveal the truth and ensure justice. But today, it is not independent courts that are trying to judge us, but a handful of power-holders and their media.

We are not being judged; we are being declared guilty in advance. We are being subjected to systematic slander and organized lies. We are not being judged. We are being held hostage so that a handful of people who will never win an election again can win the next one. They don't even have the courage to let us be tried without arrest. Because they are afraid of us doing our jobs. They are afraid because they cannot compete in municipal governance and the nation prefers us. They don't have the courage to let us be tried without arrest. Because they are afraid of us being intertwined with citizens on the streets and in the markets. They are afraid of the answers we will give to all their lies and slanders while looking the nation in the eye. Let them be afraid. Those who pick a fight with the national will and walk in the opposite direction of the nation will certainly be afraid.

The nation has condemned them in their conscience, and it will condemn them at the ballot box. The ballot box will come, and everyone will account for their actions. When that day comes, on a Sunday, we will run to the ballot boxes with a longing for justice, and together we will establish the government of freedom, equality, and brotherhood. We will root out poverty, helplessness, and hopelessness from these lands. We will live together in safety in a fair, free, and prosperous country. Everything will be very beautiful."

ÖZGÜR ÖZEL: HE HAS ACHIEVED THE IMPOSSIBLE ON ELECTION NIGHT

Key points from Özel's speech are as follows:

"Hakan (Bahçetepe) is a young politician of 37. Seven years ago, I was walking around the stands set up by all parties in these squares with Hakan and his father. Back then, this place was the stronghold of the AK Party. Since 1963, there have been 12 elections, and we only won in '89. But we didn't find the fault in Gaziosmanpaşa; we looked for it in ourselves.

We invested politically in a district chair like Hakan and gave him the task. He worked; he is a child who grew up working as a tradesman in his father's gift shop. He is in trade. He hasn't left a story behind where he couldn't look someone in the eye or where someone would speak ill of him behind his back. He became a candidate, entered the election, and ran his campaign with his friend's car. He visited the poor neighborhoods one by one. He said he knew the problems and explained how he would solve them. He carried out his campaign with personal vehicles provided by his friends and party members. When he got stuck, he sold the bracelet on his wife's arm to campaign for the party...

"THERE ARE OBJECTIONS IN ALL BALLOT BOXES. THOSE WHO DIDN'T LET ONE BE COUNTED HAD THE BALLOT BOXES IN GAZİOSMANPAŞA COUNTED 100 TIMES"

On election night, he achieved the impossible. They looked and saw that in that place called the AK Party stronghold, my brother Hakan was ahead by a thousand votes. There was mudslinging at the ballot box and mudslinging at the district election board. There is a difference of two thousand in all of Hatay. There are objections in all ballot boxes. Those who didn't let one be counted had the ballot boxes in Gaziosmanpaşa counted 100 times. They had all the votes counted for days, but they had to give the certificate of election to Hakan. They haven't been able to digest it since that day, and they are looking for ways to take Gaziosmanpaşa out of Hakan's hands. They are looking at those games.

"AZİZ İHSAN AKTAŞ'S APPLICATION WAS ACCEPTED BEFORE APRIL 1ST"

Now, the situation in Gaziosmanpaşa needs to be explained clearly. All of Turkey needs to know. While we were recounting the votes, on the morning of April 1st, an application by the previous mayor, a person named Aziz İhsan Aktaş... He sent a document on the morning of April 1st. There is an AK Party-MHP majority in the Municipal Council. The document entered the system, and Hakan saw it in front of him when he received his certificate. He said, 'What is this?' In the Municipal Council in June, this application, which the former mayor sent to the municipal council and which all AK Party and MHP municipal council members voted for, resulted in a decision regarding the place at the gas station that you all know about, this Aziz İhsan Aktaş. There was no application or transaction during Hakan's mayoral term. It went to the Council and passed with the votes of the AKP-MHP."

"THEY ARE TELLING AZİZ İHSAN AKTAŞ, 'SLANDER, AND WE WILL RELEASE YOU'"

In this file for which they arrested him, they are telling this Aziz İhsan Aktaş, 'Slander, and we will release you'. I said, is this even possible? Aziz İhsan Aktaş is the leader of a criminal organization in that file. If the leader of a criminal organization confesses, he founded the organization, how can he get out? You tell it, because the goal is to set a trap for the Gaziosmanpaşa Municipality. Aziz İhsan Aktaş said, 'I told the mayor through my partner. My partner gave a bribe to the mayor using an intermediary'. When did he give it? Six months after the incident. He makes the application to another municipality. They make the referral. The AK Party-MHP passes it. Hakan is supposedly taking a bribe for a job that was finished six months later.

"'IF I EVER CAME FACE TO FACE WITH THEM OUTSIDE THE MUNICIPALITY, HANG ME IN TAKSIM,' SAYS HAKAN"

These conspirators in the prosecutor's office put Hakan's base station record and the base station record of the slanderer's partner together. They accept that if you pull from the same station, it means you are together. They came together at the same base station for three days in a year. The man says, 'He gave the bribe through this second person. They were seen for two days, and on the third day, they took the bribe'. That is the claim. What is the truth? He says, 'Except for the group that came to the municipality to congratulate me, if I ever came face to face, stood side by side, shook hands, or looked into their eyes from a distance of ten meters outside the municipality, hang me in Taksim,' says Hakan."

"HAKAN REVEALED IT WITH A SOCIAL MEDIA POST"

How did he prove it? Let all of Turkey hear the conspiracy. One of the meetings is on November 24th. Hakan brought it out with his video, with his social media post; at the minute they claim, Hakan is side by side with teachers in 3 different schools for the November 24th celebration. That base station is one kilometer away, and this person's gas station is 500 kilometers away. That school and that gas station pull from the same base station. Another one is at the time of the program where the covered bazaar was opened, they say they were together, at the same base. Because the gas station is on one side, and the bazaar is on the other. In the previous one, the schools were also behind it. Again, he went to visit a university student exchange program somewhere. The distance between them is 850 meters.

"THEY WILL ELECT A DEPUTY MAYOR IN HAKAN'S PLACE"

Look, the conspiracy is this; they take the base station report. They highlight where the base station of the man they are slandering and Hakan's base station overlap. 'I came here today and gave a bribe with a bag,' he says. No footage, no recording, no trace or sign regarding the money... But despite this, despite such a clear explanation, they took Hakan and put him inside. Now, tomorrow the Minister of Interior will suspend him because he is under arrest, then they will go to the municipal council, and 18 AK Party members and 3 MHP members, 21 people, will elect a deputy mayor in Hakan's place. Did you see the conspiracy?

"IF THIS MUNICIPALITY IS SEIZED, IT SHOWS THAT THE AKP IS PREPARING NOT TO HOLD ELECTIONS ANYMORE"

If this municipality is seized with this base station record, it shows that the Justice and Development Party—there are already signs of it, every indication is there—has finished the idea of the ballot box in its mind, is fully intent on a coup, and is preparing not to hold elections ever again. Now, I want to say this to these coup plotters from this square. Gaziosmanpaşa has made a decision. If you set a trap for him with base station records and take this municipality out of the hands of the people of Gaziosmanpaşa and put it at the disposal of the Palace, their hands will be around your neck, and they will ruin you.

From here, I am calling out to all AK Party and MHP members in Gaziosmanpaşa. Look, we competed for years, you won. For 47 years, this party was the second party. We looked for the fault in ourselves. Once your party became the second party, you lost Gaziosmanpaşa. You didn't lose to an enemy; you lost to a son of this place. Now, while a decision made according to the election result with the halal votes of everyone like you should be implemented, they are trying to stage a coup. If the voters and members of the AK Party and MHP allow this, become a tool for this, or remain silent, I'm sorry, Hakan will go down in history as a hero, and you will go down in history as having been complicit in treachery by remaining silent. Do not allow this."

"I WILL MAKE THOSE WHO HAD THE VIDEO FILMED RUB THEIR NOSES IN THE DIRT"

They came to Hakan in the morning and carried out the operation. Then they served the footage. TRT and many pro-government channels. On the screen, 'Secret safe in Gaziosmanpaşa Municipality reached'... The image is a huge safe, and they keep pulling dollars out of it. God forbid, if I didn't know them, I would believe it too. A person's mother would believe it, because Hakan's picture is on top, and below it says 'Gaziosmanpaşa's secret safe found'. They keep pulling out dollars. I got suspicious. I immediately called our provincial chairs and said, what happened in Gaziosmanpaşa? They said, it's true, there is a safe. Who installed the safe? The previous mayor. So what came out of it? There is an official seal of a municipality, and there is a presentation made when the municipality was taken over. It's unlocked, and there is nothing inside. We ask TRT. They say stock footage. We used the footage on hand, they say when it comes to a safe.

I am saying it clearly: Tayyip Erdoğan staged a coup because he cannot defeat Mayor Ekrem and because he cannot take Gaziosmanpaşa out of the hands of Mayor Hakan.

In very old times, like the treatment given to terrorist organizations, they lined them up according to age and height, turned on the camera, and made them pass in front of it one by one. They tried to discredit our friends. That footage has perhaps taken Turkey back 60-80 years. The police in that footage are just following orders, but whoever gave the instruction in that footage, whoever wanted it, I will make those who had that video filmed rub their noses in the dirt before this nation.

"I ASK OUR FAITHFUL CITIZENS"

Now I am asking all our faithful citizens in front of their televisions. I am calling out from here. If this file were full of crime, if the people in this file had anything to do with corruption, if anything came out of Mustafa Akın's shoddy safe, out of the Gaziosmanpaşa Municipality, would they have TRT broadcast stock footage, my brother? These are fraudsters, liars, and slanderers. Every word is a slander. And I am asking from here. How will you go to the other world with this violation of rights? How will you account for this."

News Source: 12punto