Joint statement from CHP deputies!

In the CHP, which emerged victorious from the March 31 Local Elections and became the leading party in Turkey after 47 years, the operations targeting municipalities and mayors show no signs of stopping.

Following investigations that began with the arrest of Esenyurt Mayor Ahmet Özer and accelerated with operations targeting the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) on March 19, 16 CHP mayors, including İBB Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Adana Metropolitan Mayor Zeydan Karalar, and Antalya Metropolitan Mayor Muhittin Böcek, have been arrested. A house arrest order was issued for Adıyaman Mayor Abdurrahman Tutdere.

Most recently, in an operation targeting the Şile Municipality, Mayor Özgür Kabadayı and several individuals from the municipality were detained last night.

The 134 CHP deputies in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) issued a written statement against the relentless operations, detentions, and arrests.

The statement declared, “As a result of the policies of the AKP’s 23-year rule, alongside a deep economic crisis, a deep democracy crisis is unfolding in Turkey today.”

The joint statement by the 134 deputies included the following expressions:

"ALSO TARGETING OUR DEMOCRATIC TRADITION AND ACHIEVEMENTS"

“The palace regime, with the March 19 coup, has dealt a direct blow to the citizens' right to vote and be elected. This coup was not only against our mayors but also against the will of millions of our citizens who elected those mayors, that is, against the national sovereignty. Realizing that it is no longer possible to remain in power through elections and that it cannot generate consent, the palace regime is therefore disregarding the will of the voters by instrumentalizing the judiciary; the constitution and laws are being violated, and elected mayors are being detained unlawfully and arrested without legal justification.

It is clear that these attacks are not only directed at our party but also at our Republic, our democratic tradition, and our achievements. The government's silence regarding anti-secular provocations and the insolence of labeling the Republic as a coup is a clear admission of this situation. The palace regime's direct targeting of our party's presidential candidate, determined by primary elections, and our elected mayors by arresting them unlawfully, as well as threatening our party leader, clearly shows that the Republican People's Party is the strongest fortress that will save our country from an authoritarian regime and carry it to a democratic regime.

"WE STAND WITH ALL OUR ELECTED MAYORS WHO HAVE BEEN ARRESTED"

Neither our Republic nor our Republican People's Party was founded at a desk. The Republican People's Party was established under the leadership of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as the continuation of the Association for the Defense of the Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia and the National Forces (Kuvayımilliye), and is the founding party of the Republic of Turkey. We are the representatives of a tradition that has made independence the essence of its character. The Republican People's Party accepts the rule of law, human rights and freedoms, secularism, pluralistic and participatory democracy, gender equality, the social state, sustainable and inclusive growth, and the establishment of a peaceful and just world order worthy of human dignity as its indispensable fundamental principles.

Against the palace regime, and in the face of attacks on the Republican People's Party and democracy, we, as the Republican People's Party Parliamentary Group, stand tall; we will never compromise, we will not take a step back; we stand with our Chairman Özgür Özel, our presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, and all our elected mayors who have been unlawfully detained and arrested.”

News Source: 12punto