The 'Defending the National Will' rally in Sivas: Özel's 'fountain' calculation for victory

Tens of thousands of citizens gathered in Sivas's Cumhuriyet Square to listen to the statements of CHP Chairman Özgür Özel.

The message from İmamoğlu was read first in the square.

Key highlights from Özel's statement are as follows:

"We come to Sivas once or twice almost every year. We come for rallies in Sivas. We know the rallies held by all political parties in this square, and there is a measure, a limit in Sivas. We see the fountain there. If the crowd in the square reaches the fountain, it means that party is coming. Today, you have doubled the fountain in Sivas. You are writing history."

"THEY TOOK SIVAS FOR GRANTED"

The Republic made great investments in Sivas. Sivas was ranked eighth in development in Turkey. Since the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) came to power, it has received votes and support from Sivas, but unfortunately, it has always turned its back on Sivas after the elections, despite facing it during the campaign. They took Sivas for granted. They took from Sivas by the shovel and gave back by the teaspoon, and ultimately, they pushed Sivas, which was in eighth place, down to 45th.

"7 MILLION PEOPLE FROM SIVAS LIVE ABROAD OR IN OTHER PROVINCES"

Today, this beautiful city's population, which was 755 thousand when the Justice and Development Party came to power 23 years ago, has fallen to 637 thousand, a loss of 118 thousand. While Turkey went from 60 million to 85 million, while Turkey grew by 25 million, and while Sivas was expected to exceed 1 million and should have become a metropolitan city, they unfortunately pushed Sivas down toward 600 thousand. 7 million people from Sivas live abroad or in other provinces. They all miss their hometown, the apple of their eye; they suffer from homesickness and rush back whenever they have the opportunity. However, due to unemployment, livelihood struggles, and a lack of investment, they are shrinking and regressing this city, to which the AK Party turns its face only when seeking votes and then turns its back.

"THERE ARE STILL VILLAGES IN SIVAS WHERE CELL PHONES DO NOT WORK"

While neighboring provinces have sixth-region incentives, Sivas does not. Hospitals are inadequate. People go to Ankara or Kayseri for treatment. They promised the high-speed train for years but did not build it. It is finally finished. The train takes three and a half hours for a route they said would take 1 hour and 50 minutes. They cannot even operate the train, which they managed to finish in 15 years, as it should be. The Gelinbelli Tunnel has been waiting for 12 years, and the Kızıldağ Pass has been waiting for 11 years. I saw it myself today. I went to Divriği on one side and returned via the other road. We passed through hundreds of villages. There are still villages in Sivas where cell phones do not work and the internet does not function."

"RECEP TAYYİP ERDOĞAN DOES NOT LOVE THE POOR, HE LOVES THE RICH"

Hopefully, when we bring our party to power together, we will make the farmers, livestock breeders, industrialists, retirees, minimum wage earners, students, and tradespeople of Sivas smile. The Republican People's Party will be the owner of a government that, unlike this one that has devastated Sivas and Turkey, does not turn its back on them, but hears, listens to, understands, and produces solutions for them. It will be the government of the nation, the government of the people. Because the problem here is that politics in this country is done to set priorities. Some people's priorities are others; our priorities are others. Let me ask this square: Does Recep Tayyip Erdoğan love you? He does not. Why doesn't he? Because you are poor, my brother. Poor. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan does not love the poor; he loves the rich.

"I AM ADDRESSING ERDOĞAN. SIVAS HAS MADE ITS DECISION. IT IS CLEAR WHO WILL GO AND WHO WILL COME"

Civil servants are now poor, minimum wage earners are poor. Everyone earning less than 86 thousand liras is poor. This government brought us to this state, but it wipes out the tax debts of wealthy companies overnight and signs and grants incentives to its cronies overnight.

Beside him are the 'gang of five' and the 'forty thieves.' From here, from Sivas Square, I am addressing Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. This square, Sivas, has made its decision. It is clear who will go and who will come. I swear that the AK Party's rule is ending. You are leaving. The era of the 'children of the homeland' is closing, and the era of the 'children of the homeland' is beginning."

"THERE IS A COUP AGAINST THE HOPE OF CHANGING THE GOVERNMENT IN THE FIRST ELECTION, AGAINST İMAMOĞLU"

Why are we in this state? Because there is no justice in the courts, nor is there income equality. There is no social justice. There is only, and exclusively, a coup against Turkey's hope of changing the government in the future, in the first election. There is a coup against Turkey's future government. There is a coup against Turkey's future President, Ekrem İmamoğlu, if our nation deems it so. Other than this, there is nothing this government is occupied with. Exactly 156 days have passed. Our friends are in prison without an indictment. The crime is not clear. There is no trial, there is a summary execution. There is no evidence, no proof, there is slander, there is a threat.

"IF YOU HAVE THE COURAGE, WRITE THE INDICTMENT IF YOU CAN. BROADCAST THE TRIAL ON TRT"

And 156 days ago, Tayyip Erdoğan said, 'You will see, within a month they will not be able to show their faces in public, they will not be able to look each other in the eye.' I am in Sivas 156 days after that statement, not 30 days. And I am looking into the eyes of the people of Sivas. I am looking into the eyes of all of Turkey and I am saying that Ekrem İmamoğlu is innocent. Our friends are innocent. The accusations are slander. If you have the courage, write the indictment if you can. Broadcast the trial on TRT. I challenge you.

"THEY TORE HIM AWAY FROM BEYOĞLU WITH THE SLANDERS OF A SLANDERER CALLED AZIZ İHSAN AKTAŞ"

Today, there was a deputy mayor election in Beyoğlu Municipality. Because the son of Sivas, whose grandfather was a street sweeper at Beyoğlu Municipality, whose father was a driver at Beyoğlu Municipality, who grew up in the garage of Beyoğlu Municipality, your son, our son, who came from the party's youth branches, who served as Beyoğlu District Chairman, our Beyoğlu Mayor, our brother İnan, they took our son İnan away.

Unfortunately, they tore İnan away from Beyoğlu, not because of an action he took in Beyoğlu, but because he was on the board of directors of a Beşiktaş Municipality affiliate years ago, with the slanders of a slanderer called Aziz İhsan Aktaş. Their goal was to deceive one of our municipal council members in the 16-to-14 split in Beyoğlu Municipality and try to take Beyoğlu, which they could not take with the ballot box, through games, tricks, and bribery. For this, Özgür Çelik and Nuri Aslan were there today. The election concluded a little while ago. The tricksters were left empty-handed. They were left empty-handed.

Those who take Aydın through tricks, schemes, and blackmail, those who try to seize a municipality that the nation did not give them through tricks, hit the will of our honest, honorable municipal council members today, each of whom is dear to us, in the Beyoğlu Municipality. Beyoğlu is ours, and Istanbul is ours. From Sivas Square, let's give a strong round of applause of solidarity to both our Avcılar Mayor, my very valuable brother Utku Cener Çaykara, and our Beyoğlu Mayor İnan Güney."

"THIS MEANS THAT UNTIL TODAY, WEAPONS AND AMMUNITION WERE GOING TO ISRAEL"

There is a massacre in Gaza, and unfortunately, there is a government that remains silent to these massacres, continues trade with Israel, does not do so despite all warnings, sometimes does not sign an agreement to ban this, and is caught lying when caught red-handed.

They say they will empty Gaza, not a peep. We will build hotels there, we will build casinos, not a peep. We will expel the Palestinians to other countries, not a peep. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, if he does anything, he just shoots TikToks.

On the other hand, Erdoğan does not open his mouth to Trump. Just yesterday, they were talking verbally to firms engaged in maritime trade. They are afraid to write a letter, fearing it will fall into the hands of Israel or America. Just recently, what they said is this: there will be no explosives on ships going to Israel, no weapons or ammunition will go. This means that they were going until today, or if there are no weapons or ammunition, they will still go. There is a government that still cannot cut off trade with Israel and cannot raise its voice against Israel.

Today, we announced from Divriği to all of Turkey. We are calling the Grand National Assembly of Turkey to an extraordinary meeting next week to stand up for Palestine and to decide how to fight to hold Israel accountable."

İMAMOĞLU'S MESSAGE WAS READ

CHP Sivas Provincial Chairman Abdulvahap Gazi Doğan read the message of IMM Mayor and Presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu.

İmamoğlu expressed the following in his message:

"Dear people of Sivas, ladies and gentlemen, dear children, young people, hello.

Greetings to Sivas, the pioneering city of the national struggle and the Republic, the land of lovers, bards, and heroes. I greet you with love and respect. I embrace each of you with longing.

Sivas is the city where this great nation declared its determination to live free and independent to all of Turkey. From here, it was declared that from now on, only the national will would prevail in these lands. From here, it was declared that the nation would not bow down to the arbitrary decisions of any government not based on the national will. The principles put forward by Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and those who walked the same path as him in Sivas in September 1919 are still valid and valuable today. Today, just like the Sivas Congress delegates, we say that we have not bowed down and will not bow down to the arbitrary decisions of any government not based on the national will.

Every attempt to invalidate or change the national will that emerges from the ballot box through arbitrary decisions, no matter who it comes from or how, is an act of a coup. Arresting mayors who have come to office with the votes of millions of our citizens through a handful of judiciary members who have entered the service of politics is the very act of a coup. Having the 30-year diploma of his rival, who has defeated him four times and is about to defeat him for the fifth time, and who has been nominated by the votes of millions, cancelled through illegal means is the very act of a coup.

President Erdoğan was tried with the same accusations directed at me today when he was mayor, but he was not arrested for even a day. Because that was the requirement of law and democracy. Taking refuge in law and democracy for himself, while suspending law and democracy for his rival, is the very act of a coup. The government has clearly shown that it does not intend to allow free and fair elections and that it is eager to impose itself on the nation by ignoring the national will. As our nation sees what kind of judicial conspiracy has been set up against us and resists the coup attempt square by square, the government has also started to hope for coup-plotting political methods. They think they can hold us captive with a coup-plotting policy based on judicial conspiracies, threats, blackmail, and hostage-taking. They can only hold captive those miserable people who have lost their honor, dignity, and love for their homeland and nation. They can only make such people their own rights.

We, the imprisoned mayors and administrators, draw our strength and courage from our people, from our nation. You could not defeat us at the ballot box, and you will not be able to. You could not hold us captive with coup administrations, and you will not be able to. You will not be able to hold our Beyoğlu Mayor, the brave son of Sivas, İnan Güney, captive either. We will all emerge from those dungeons with our heads held high, and the nation will make you pay the price for these actions at the ballot box. The nation is great. It grabs those who see themselves in a hall of mirrors, those who do not play politics fairly, and those who do not recognize the law by the ear and buries them in the ballot box. It will be the same again.

Against the rule of a handful of people, we will establish the rule of the nation. In this paradise homeland, we will live together in brotherhood without suffering from livelihood problems and without worrying about the future. We will provide justice and freedom for everyone, everywhere, not just for some. No power has turned us from our path, and it will not be able to. Just like you, my faith, courage, and hope are infinite. A handful of people will lose. Who will win? The nation will win."

News Source: 12punto