Mr. Erdoğan continues to ignore Ramadan, disregard the holiday, and escalate his harsh tone: Özel attacks via Trump

Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Özgür Özel attended an iftar program organized by the Yenimahalle Municipality.

Özel said the following:

“I am not in favor of engaging in harsh political debates during Ramadan. I said this at the first iftar in Etimesgut, and I am still maintaining that stance. But unfortunately, Mr. Erdoğan continues to escalate the hardening, the debate, ignoring Ramadan, disregarding the holiday, and increasing this harsh tone with each passing day.

But I will not respond to him again. Journalist friends are waiting for that. I will only remind him of this. I told him, 'Look, detaining opposition mayors, throwing them in jail, throwing municipal council members in jail, trying to appoint trustees to the main opposition party, trying to impose a political ban on a metropolitan mayor, trying to end the political life of someone who will be his rival in the future and who has defeated him three or four times so far, and doing this by using public power and making judges a tool for this is not courage.

If you are going to show courage, if you are going to show it in Turkey, you will face us, you will bring the ballot box, and that is how you will show courage.' They say, 'No, we don't have the courage now,' they say, 'Let's meet in September or October of 2027.' The nation has no strength left to endure; the knife is at the bone. Therefore, the sooner the ballot box comes, the sooner the nation's face will smile. 

"ARE YOU THE OWNER OF THE WORLD?"

No, but if you are going to show this courage not here but abroad, now is the perfect time. We are in the blessed days of Ramadan. A cause that Turkey has always stood by; the Palestinian cause. Ever since the late Ecevit walked arm in arm with Yasser Arafat, ever since Deniz Gezmiş and his friends championed the Palestinian cause. Now Trump has won the American elections, and he is dropping a bomb on the agenda of world politics every day. Unfortunately, for Palestine, he says, 'Gaza is beautiful, it's a coastline. Let's send these Palestinians to the surrounding countries.

Let's build beautiful summer houses and hotels there. Let's operate it for tourism'... Are you the owner of the world? That is Palestine. Those are holy lands. There is a United Nations resolution regarding a two-state structure with East Jerusalem as the capital within the 1967 borders. He does not recognize the world. He says, 'I will go there.' German President Steinmeier reacted to this, Mr. Erdoğan was next to him, and he didn't say a word. I said yesterday, 'If you are going to show some courage, say something against this Trump. Say, Palestine belongs to the Palestinians. We will not let anyone touch Palestine.' Today he has come out and said this and that. He says, 'What did I say to Netanyahu in the past?' I am not saying you didn't say 'One minute' to Netanyahu in the past. 

ÖZGÜR ÖZEL CONDEMNED TERRORISM

That is in the past, now Trump is talking about 'deportation.' He says, 'I will drive the Palestinians out of here,' he says, 'I will settle them in other countries.' He says, 'I will commit a crime against humanity.' You turn around and say, 'Sir, I said this to Netanyahu.' And he also says, 'Sir, Özgür Özel was saying Hamas is committing terrorism.' Let's remind Erdoğan of this. On the night of October 1-7, when there was no conflict environment, Hamas put bombs on balloons and zeppelins and sent them over civilians. We said that day, 'This is a terrorist act.' But on October 8, Israel started, and it instrumentalized what they call a provocation and committed genocide there for two years. It killed 50,000 people, 30,000 of whom were children. We have stood by Palestine at every opportunity. We explained it to all leaders in the Socialist International as best as we could. We discussed these issues with European Social Democratic parties just last week. He keeps going around saying, 'Sir, it was like that back then.' The act committed against civilians that night was terrorism, and what has been done to the Palestinians for two years is state terrorism. We condemn terrorism from whoever it comes, and we are against it.

“TURKEY SHOULD NOT REMAIN SILENT”

On the other hand, we are having iftar together here, the Muharram fast is being kept together, and the ashure is being cooked together. The Republican People's Party and Yenimahalle, Turkey, we are all together with our Alevis and Sunnis. But there is a major attack against Alevi souls in Latakia. Thousands of people have lost their lives. We have been expressing our sensitivity to the issue from the first day. We were in Hatay with 15 of our deputies, and we are making a desperate effort to ensure the rights, law, and safety of the Arab Alevis. Now, just as they try to legitimize what has been done for two years by labeling a terrorist act by Netanyahu there as a 'provocation,' they keep going around saying, if it is soldiers left over from Assad, whom they call 'Assad's remnant,' if they are provoking—and we condemned the fact that they attacked people coming out of Tarawih prayers, we condemn it—but we have no tolerance for the lives of innocent, guiltless civilians being taken, for them to be attacked, or for civilian casualties, using this as an excuse. Please, let no one use something else as an excuse—could there be a provocation? Yes, there could. But Turkey should not remain silent against these massacres by using this as an excuse. 

“WE ARE ON THE PATH OF MUSTAFA KEMAL ATATÜRK”

We held a very important meeting on this issue today in our Foreign Policy Advisory Board, with the contributions of our party's previous chairmen, previous deputy chairmen who have served in our party, our ambassadors, those currently in office, and those who have served in the past. We reiterated our calls. We will continue to reiterate them from now on. And we are saying one thing on this iftar evening. The principle we are bound to is this, it has not changed for 100 years. Peace at home, peace in the world. We are on the path of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

“WE ARE SECOND FROM THE LAST”

Unfortunately, we always want our country to be at the forefront. However, 20 million people in the country are currently receiving social assistance. One in four people is in need of social assistance. But while we were fifth from the last in social assistance among OECD countries in 2019, we have now fallen to second from the last. Unfortunately, even countries like Costa Rica and Chile have surpassed us. Look, the money we allocated for social assistance was 12 percent of the gross national product in 2019. Now it has fallen to 10 percent. This figure is 32 percent in Austria, 31 percent in Finland, 30.6 percent in France, and 28 percent in Germany. A giant economy like Germany, so that no one is left behind, so that no one suffers from poverty, so that if they cannot find a job, they receive enough unemployment benefits, so that no one has difficulty buying diapers, formula, or medicine for their child, that massive German economy gives 28 percent of it to social assistance. But they provide rent assistance, or cash assistance, or they look after their citizens through other methods. We have fallen from 12 percent to 10 percent. Despite our own small budget.

"BONUS HAS DECLINED”

Are there any retirees here? Let me see the retirees. Everyone is a retiree. They were waiting for the holiday bonus. Let's remember this holiday bonus. The Republican People's Party proposed it in 2015, first they said, 'You can't give it' on June 7, 2015. On November 1, that is, after they lost the June 7 election, they said, 'We will give it too.' We were saying 'One minimum wage,' the minimum wage was probably 1,450 liras back then. They gave a thousand liras, we objected. We said, 'It will be as much as one minimum wage.' They said, 'This much.' The money they gave that day was 62 percent of the minimum wage. That is, if we calculate it by today's account, it was worth 13,700 liras. Today they made the retiree holiday bonus 4,000 liras. And to those who say to Erdoğan, 'Can't you increase it a little more?', he said, 'What more are we going to increase, isn't it enough for you?' Whereas today, this 4,000 liras is 18 percent of the minimum wage. When it was first given, the CHP said, 'Let's give 100 percent,' they had given 62 percent of it, it has fallen to 18 percent. I said it yesterday from here, when it was first given, 1,000 liras bought 24 kilos of ground beef. Now 4,000 liras buys 5 kilos of ground beef. Retirees have regressed from a holiday bonus that bought 24 kilos of ground beef to a holiday bonus that buys 5 kilos of ground beef. Let me tell you the calculation we made for the first time here. 1,000 liras bought 33 kilos of dates in 2018, when it was first given. Now 4,000 liras buys 6 kilos of dates. They have regressed it from a bonus that bought 33 kilos of dates to a bonus that buys 6 kilos of dates.

“WHERE IS THE RETIREE'S 4,750 DOLLARS?”

And there is a huge income inequality. The government boasts of a national income of 15,400 dollars. When the dollar is kept low, the national income has increased a bit accordingly. They say, 'Our average income in Turkey is 15,400 dollars,' the lowest pension they give to 4 million retirees is 4,750 dollars. Where is 15,400 dollars, where is 4,750 dollars? The other big injustice is that they collect 100 liras in taxes, and 66 liras of it is taken from the indirect taxes that everyone pays. Indirect tax is the most unfair tax in the world. A factory owner enters the dairy across the street, and the factory guard enters after him. When the factory owner buys cheese, he pays the same tax, when he buys sausage, he pays the same tax. The guard working at the gate pays the same tax. A man enters the gas station across the street with the most expensive jeep in the world, he says, 'Fill it up,' he pays the same tax. A farmer enters with a beat-up 1986 model Massey Ferguson tractor, he also pays the same tax on the fuel. 66 percent of the taxes are the most unfair type of tax that does not distinguish between rich and poor, the type of tax you pay while paying your electricity bill, paying your water bill, shopping at the market, or paying for your child's school expenses. It is equal for everyone. Then the remaining 20 percent is deducted from our salaries, before it even touches our hands. Does that make 86 percent? 14 percent remains. The tax taken from Corporate Tax. That is, the tax paid by rich companies, bosses, and holdings is 14 percent. So this is such an unfair system that there is a system that collects taxes from those who should not be paying, not from those who should. For this reason, we object to this to the end.

“I HEAR YOUR VOICE”

The month of Ramadan is the month of justice. It is the month when the full understands the state of the hungry. But unfortunately, the full who govern the country do not understand the state of the people they get votes from and leave hungry. This is all I have to say during Ramadan. I hear insults, I don't respond. I hear abuse, I don't respond. Whatever they do, I don't hear their voice, I hear yours. I hear the voice of the people of Yenimahalle. The way to win a great victory now, just as it was on March 31, is to talk about the real problems of the country. This country has a hunger problem, a poverty problem, an unemployment problem. We are talking about the real problems of this country. For this, we have set out on a path. Against those who want other things to be talked about, we want the ballot box. We are also holding our primary election on March 23 to determine our candidate. I invite all Yenimahalle residents to the election festival, the democracy festival, the democracy feast on March 23.”

News Source: 12punto