Özgür Özel reacts to the appointment of trustees: 'It is a matter of political occupation'

The Republican People's Party (CHP) held its Provincial Chairs Meeting in Istanbul. The first speech at the meeting was delivered by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. In his speech, İmamoğlu called on his party, saying, "Do not allow individual ambitions and interests."

Following İmamoğlu, CHP Chairman Özgür Özel took the podium.

Republican People's Party Chairman Özgür Özel addressed the economic pressure the government has placed on local administrations, stating, "If you say, 'Let's tie the hands of the CHP, let's collect the tax debts accumulated from our era with interest from today's municipalities, so they cannot provide services,' if you aim to hinder good work, this nation has only one goal: to save its country just as it saved its city from this malicious mindset."

Republican People's Party Leader Özel spoke at the Provincial Chairs Meeting held in Istanbul. Özel said, "My esteemed provincial chairs, the valuable president of the Union of Municipalities of Turkey and the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, our very precious citizens watching us from their screens, I greet you all once again with respect and love from Istanbul, from Esenyurt, from the meeting of our 81 provincial chairs, our provincial chairs who keep our ancestral home burning in every corner of Turkey."

Özel stated, "For a year, we have been in an intense effort for Turkey together. One year ago, we realized a democratic change in our party together. Immediately after, we set out with our 81 provincial chairs for a major change of power in Turkey. In the local elections, for which we prepared in a short period of four months following our convention, we achieved a great success with our candidates, our correct candidate selection method, our candidates whom we re-nominated with their success stories in their respective fields, or our candidates in whom we trust for their justice, knowledge, and merit to manage the cities. Undoubtedly, the biggest share in this success belongs to your coordination and management, which reflects the self-confidence and hopeful outlook for the future of our organization in 81 provinces to the voters, integrating with its candidate and its party in the field. You are one of the greatest owners of this success. In your person, I greet with respect our organization that made Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's party the first in the first elections it entered in the second century of the Republic, in 81 provinces and 973 districts."

Özel continued as follows:

"WE ARE IN A NEW, VIBRANT, AND UNINTERRUPTED PROCESS"

"At the beginning of September, despite the psychological operation launched months ago by the government, asking 'Will there be a new area of tension, a new area of debate, a new area of conflict in the Republican People's Party?', we determined with consensus how we will manage our party from now on. We recorded it and left it behind. Now, the main work is that we are in the middle of a program study that we will first discuss and record how we will manage Turkey, and then present to our nation together until election day. That program is not a program where the Republican People's Party, which identifies Turkey's accumulated problems, will repeat them. Undoubtedly, one cannot talk about solutions without mentioning problems, but we have started together a very valuable process where we will explain to our people and present to our nation not just identifying problems, but how we will solve these problems, with whom we will solve them, with what method we will solve them, and in what timeframe we will solve them. Starting from next week, with the meetings we will hold in your provinces and all districts, both with our organization and, more importantly, with all components of that city, professional organizations, unions, and opinion leaders, we are in a new process, a very vibrant process, and an uninterrupted process that once again claims the country's real agenda in Turkey, talking about it, discussing it, and keeping it constantly on the country's agenda, starting from the smallest district at the local level. This continuity must last until the day the Republican People's Party comes to power. Of course, various agendas come before us. We are facing a huge trap of just talking about those agendas and consuming them. We must state our word with extra effort on those newly emerging agendas that our base and our nation also expect a reaction to, but we must never lose our basic motivation and our main goal, which is the first elections to be held, winning those elections, and talking about the real problems of this country to win those elections."

"OVER 200 THOUSAND NEW MEMBERS, THE FAVOR OF OUR NATION"

"Of course, you are all watching, you see, and we are following the total with great satisfaction that the party is stronger every day compared to the previous day, every month compared to the previous month, every year compared to the previous year in every corner of Turkey, and there is a great orientation towards our party. When we look at the past year, we have left behind the year in which we gained the most members of all time. The Republican People's Party has achieved its highest membership record of all time with over 200 thousand new member registrations in the last year, and by multiplying it. This clearly shows the favor the nation shows to the party and that you keep the door of the Republican People's Party, which we call 'Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's ancestral home' and which he cited as one of his two great works, wide open, that you show the best seats to those who come, and that you can make them partners in the path we will walk together. While the numbers show this, while the agenda shows this, while you talk about this on the street, in the market, in the field, in the coffeehouse, in front of worker shuttles, in front of factories, some are doing their best to describe a chaos, a confusion, a tangle of contradictions within the Republican People's Party. It should be known that those who are not on the street have no equivalent in the hall, and those who are not in the hall have no equivalent anywhere. Just as we came out as a single fist from the statute convention we all went to together, or just as our 81 provincial chairs cut the discussion like a knife and put the party and the country on its real agenda against those who tried to make it look like there was a discussion that did not exist within the party, from now on, it is the common duty of all of us to talk about the trouble in our citizens' hearts or the hope in their hearts, and not to drift into anything else, as in the wisdom and common will you showed in the past weeks, with the approach that our citizens expect from you and from us: 'Talk about my trouble. Never compromise on unnecessary discussions that do not exist within yourselves.'"

"WHATEVER HAPPENED, HAPPENED WITH CHP WINNING ESENYURT"

"We were last together with you in Muğla on October 13. Since that day, we have all been following a bad process created by an understanding that puts its own interest above the nation's interest, that risks dragging the nation into chaos for its own impasse, that risks dragging the nation into chaos and other impasses to resolve its own impasse, and that risks punishing our citizens for the vote they cast. There is such a situation. If there is someone who opposes them; this could be a journalist, this could be a student, this could be an academic. There is a mindset that threatens, tries to show its power against them, and at the first opportunity, threatens them with their freedom, takes them, and fills them into Silivri. Sometimes, this mindset directs this directly to the elected. Saying to the nation; 'Look, I decide who will manage this place. If you go to the ballot box and comply with my decision, I will praise you, I will crown you, I will not say anything other than the will of the nation. But if one day you do not approve of what I impose on you at the ballot box, then I will not count you either.' We are in a district where this is exactly embodied. We are in Turkey's largest district. We are in Esenyurt, Turkey's largest district with a population of over one million. When we, as the Republican People's Party, lost Esenyurt, its population was 90 thousand. It had become one million in the 2019 elections when we took it back from the AK Party. In the period in between, Esenyurt had turned into Turkey's museum of urban crimes, an open-air museum of urban crimes. While there was reasonable zoning, plenty of greenery, living spaces, and a European city appearance in a neighboring district—and the Beylikdüzü Mayor of that period, with that effort, was rewarded by the nation as the Republican People's Party's Metropolitan Mayor in Istanbul years later by entering the hearts of Istanbulites with the work he did in a district of Istanbul—in neighboring Esenyurt, that city of one million, where people could not see the sky from where they stood, where the wind did not pass through when you looked from afar, where every crime that could be committed against the city was committed, where every square meter of green space was massacred, and where licenses were given with incredible floor area ratios and heights that touched the clouds, was taken from the AK Party and given to the Republican People's Party by the Esenyurt residents who were fed up in the 2019 elections. In the elections held at the end of five years, the Republican People's Party won this place again with Ahmet Özer, the candidate it determined in accordance with Esenyurt's sociology, expectations, and vision, this time not only by not losing it back, but by taking the vote of one in every two Esenyurt residents, let alone giving it to the AK Party. That is where whatever happened, happened."

"WE CONTINUE TO GIVE THE SAME DEMOCRATIC REACTION"

"Those who make certain calculations wanted to punish this success of the Republican People's Party, the Republican People's Party's alliance with the nation, that is, the Republican People's Party, which can embrace not only social democrats but also nationalist democrats, conservative democrats, and Kurdish democrats together and respond to their expectations together, and wanted to send a message to all of Turkey through a district they wanted very much but could not get their hands on. That is why Ahmet Özer, who was elected with the vote of one in every two people, whose letter we listened to from his own mouth a little while ago, whose voice our Istanbul Provincial Chair made heard in this hall, has been detained in Silivri for 27 days. Those who appointed a trustee to our Esenyurt Municipality also appointed trustees to Mardin, Batman, and Halfeti, as if to complete a perception operation immediately afterward. We gave the same democratic reaction we gave in Esenyurt in other municipalities as well. We had already given the same sincere reaction in Van when they said, 'Let's give the certificate of election to the second one, not the winner,' or in Hakkari, where they switched to the trustee practice as soon as they were elected. We gave the same democratic reaction in Esenyurt, we gave it in the ongoing processes, and we continue to give it. As if these were not enough, since that day, our entire organization has been sincerely standing by Esenyurt's will, and while our understanding that is party-focused but democracy-oriented, not person-focused but respecting the voter's preferences, emphasizing the voter's right to vote more than the elected's right to be elected is clear, results that would disturb the ruling party emerged. In public opinion polls conducted in Esenyurt, 80 percent of Esenyurt residents were saying, 'An injustice is being done to Ahmet Özer, an unfairness is being done. An injustice is being done to Esenyurt.'"

"THIS OCCUPATION POLICY, WHICH RETURNED FROM THE NATION'S CONSCIENCE, HAS BACKFIRED"

"Yesterday, you, our 81 provincial chairs, were in Esenyurt. You raised the necessary voice in the square. You, our seven provincial chairs from seven regions, showed and shouted to all of Turkey that this issue is not a party issue, that this issue is not an issue of any ethnic voter group, that this issue is owned as a democracy issue from the Black Sea, the Aegean, Central Anatolia, the East, the Southeast, and Thrace. Afterward, you were in 43 neighborhoods in Esenyurt. You went to 43 neighborhoods to explain an illegality, an injustice to the tradesmen and the residents of that neighborhood. But more than you, the Esenyurt residents, the residents of Esenyurt, expressed with great sincerity the figures reflected in the polls by 80 percent, stating that they own their will and see this issue as a great injustice. That is why we are strong. That is why Tayyip Erdoğan's game has backfired and will backfire. That is why the practice carried out in Esenyurt is not a trustee issue, which is a legal issue, but a matter of political occupation. That is why those who cannot take Esenyurt at the ballot box are trying to take it by coup, and those who are trying to send a dirty message to the voter's subconscious by saying, 'If you don't elect me, I will risk everything not to leave power. You better choose peace, not chaos' for the future, just as they intervened in the certificate of election that Ekrem İmamoğlu was elected by the free will of the citizen and given to him with a YSK coup on March 31, 2019, and those who came 45 days later saying 'We are going to slap the Ottoman slap to Istanbul' returned having received the biggest democracy slap from Istanbul themselves, this trustee policy, this occupation policy started from Esenyurt and returned from the nation's conscience has also backfired. Our nation has claimed democracy, those they elected, and the right to vote, and will continue to do so. Therefore, as the Republican People's Party, we will continue to stand against those who challenge the will of the people, no matter where they are in Turkey."

"THE PRODUCT OF THE WORLD'S MOST EVIL MIND IN TUNCELI"

"Just last weekend, this time again in a carefully chosen place, in Tunceli, a trustee was appointed once again to the Tunceli Municipality and the CHP-run Ovacık Municipality. The reason for this appointment is so clear that it was completely a continuation of an evil mind aimed at establishing an intolerance and a perception. The work they did was to try to label our mayor, who has been elected by voters for three terms, as a terrorist by showing a condolence visit made 12 years ago as a crime. Let us say this once again insistently: Condolences are given to the living, not the dead. No mother or father can be held responsible for a crime their child committed in the past after their child's death. Those who go to offer condolences to that grieving mother and father, perhaps two separate children have been involved in two separate crimes or have become members of two separate organizations, it falls to the same mother, the same father, the same family to receive the condolences of two separate children with diametrically opposed worldviews. To extract terrorism from a condolence visit there, and to not see this for 10 years, and to open an investigation 10 years later, and to punish this 12 years later can only be the product of the world's most ill-intentioned, most evil mind. Moreover, upon the question of the prosecutor of the period calling our mayor and asking, 'There is a funeral. If I send this with soldiers, I will give martyrs for nothing in a new conflict. If you meet with the family, if you deliver this funeral, if you organize the funeral, would it be okay?', and upon the answer 'Do the district governor and the governor know?', the fact that a funeral ceremony, which was held after the district governor's knowledge was confirmed upon the answer 'I am requesting it with their knowledge', was requested from the CHP municipality on behalf of the state that day, and today it is shown as a crime and a trustee is appointed, is the very situation that we complain to our nation about, which is extremely hypocritical, extremely opportunistic, and which eliminates the trust between institutions and the seriousness of the state with extremely simple interests. We will continue to respect and claim the preferences of our nation, which trusted us and pinned its hope on us on March 31."

"I GREET THE STRUGGLE OF ALL WOMEN WITH RESPECT"

"My esteemed provincial chairs, today is November 25. International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Two days ago in Ankara, we were together with our women's branch members who were assigned from each of your provinces, who came to office by election, and who represent us in Ankara, and with all women's organizations in Turkey. We held the Remedy Equality Workshop. From here, I greet with respect the struggle of all women who grow solidarity against violence and goodness against evil. When we come to power in the first elections, we will do everything in our power so that women in this country feel safe, and to abandon every one of the outdated practices that emerged in our workshop and are impossible to accept in this age, so that women are not murdered, do not see violence, can raise their children safely, and can achieve the equality they deserve. Today, the final version of the declaration of that convention will be shared with the public. The will in that declaration is the common will of the Republican People's Party that we will abandon that process of withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention, which we all boast about and which came into force with the votes and applause of all deputies and reversed all figures regarding violence against women in the year it came into force, with a single signature of one person, and that steps will be taken to eliminate all kinds of deficiencies in public administration regarding violence against women, both constitutional, legal, and practical, regarding femicides. I would like to record this once again here in the presence of our provincial chairs."

"THE SHOPPING BAG THAT FILLED FOR 100 LIRAS LAST YEAR IS BARELY FILLING FOR 150 LIRAS TODAY"

"As I said a little while ago, the real agenda of the people is the deep economic difficulties they are experiencing. It is the duty of all of us to focus on this and not let it be forgotten. The sorrows of people who return from the market empty-handed, with their heads bowed, with their heads down, who extend their path by passing through a back street to avoid passing in front of the tradesmen, are also our main concern. All published data show this. TÜRK-İŞ's figures—and TÜRK-İŞ's figures have always been in the middle between TÜİK's figures and other figures—even according to that, annual kitchen inflation is 49 percent. TÜRK-İŞ says that the shopping bag that was 100 liras last year is barely filled for 150 liras today. According to OECD data, Turkey is the leader by far in food inflation. And the most valuable study, in my opinion, is the inflation of the minimum wage earner. That is, what does a minimum wage earner do? They pay rent. What do they do? They buy bread. They make the most essential food expenditures. They buy books, notebooks, pencils for their child. If they can give, they give their child an allowance. The inflation of this is currently 79 percent. Today, the minimum wage is 17 thousand liras. It has not been increased for a year. Today's minimum wage has fallen to the purchasing power of 10 thousand 200 liras on the day it was given. That is, we were objecting to the 17 thousand lira minimum wage on January 1, they have made the minimum wage 10 thousand liras as of January 1. And today, the raise to be given to the minimum wage is being discussed."

"WE ARE IN A PROCESS WHERE PURCHASING POWER HAS FALLEN 15 TIMES"

"According to the report of the Food Retailers Association, while 56 percent of citizens said, 'I only meet my basic needs, I am cutting my luxuries' in 2023, this figure has risen to 73 percent this year. Three out of four people cannot spend money on anything other than basic needs. Under these conditions, the raise to be made to the minimum wage is extremely important. Yesterday, a newspaper did shopping with a market receipt from 10 years ago. The resulting increase rate is 1,535 percent. They went out of the market, which they went out for 62 liras in 2014, for 1,017 liras yesterday. Same market, same brand, same products. The shopping list included tomatoes, onions, ketchup, chips, milk, and yogurt. And exactly 1,017 liras. That is, a 15-fold difference. That is, those who boast about removing six zeros from the currency in the past, those who make people talk only about the account by removing six zeros from both prices and salaries, have removed one zero from the currency in the last 15 years and divided it by two. We are in a process where purchasing power has fallen exactly 15 times. But those who removed one zero from the money in the pocket and divided the money by two did not change the labels in the market. We are in a process where purchasing power has fallen 15 times. While the citizen is being dragged into this situation, on the other hand, we are facing a process where 4.1 million people have lost hope of looking for a job, with TÜİK's broad-defined unemployment figure reaching up to 30 percent. And broad-defined unemployment has reached 10 million people. Exactly 10 million people are unemployed in Turkey."

"WE WILL WIN BACK MUSTAFA KEMAL'S SOLDIERS TO MUSTAFA KEMAL'S ARMY"

"While this country also has these agendas, a decision is expected to be made today with the reference made by the Minister of National Defense today. They meet today, they don't meet. But brilliant, graduated from Harbiye, since the establishment of Harbiye in the history of the Republic, for the first time in the history of Harbiye, the valedictorians of the land, naval, and air war academies have been young female lieutenants. They, together with their friends, repeated a ritual performed until last year, drew swords, and said they were Mustafa Kemal's soldiers. Except for the extremists for eight days, no one spoke, our nation did not find this abnormal at all. In fact, in all media, the process where three women were valedictorians was told with praise. Mr. Erdoğan shook the lieutenant's hand, took her salute, gave her gift, chatted. But eight days later, because someone said to him, 'Look, these types of images and these types of hopes, these types of excitements, these types of happiness in Turkey do not work for us, we need a fight, we need contention, we need jostling, we need polarization. This would step on the corns of many people in Turkey, let's do this,' he used harsh language against the lieutenants by ignoring the futures of young lieutenants, ignoring their efforts, ruining the pride of their families on that day, and poisoning that beautiful day for them eight days later. Supposedly, by saying 'We are Mustafa Kemal's soldiers,' the lieutenants were intending to challenge the government with a February 28 coup. They are trying to produce hostility from there by pulling history back 20-23 years, only to the hours that suit them. We, on the other hand, say this: If you are going to go back in this rhetoric, don't go to a date that suits you, that you think suits you. Go back, to see who Mustafa Kemal's soldiers are. If those lieutenants didn't say 'We are Mustafa Kemal's soldiers,' whose soldiers were they going to be? Mustafa Kemal's army was not standing against occupation forces in February 28 or something, Mustafa Kemal's army was standing against occupation forces 100 years ago, and the name of the commander he defeated in front of him was Trikoupis. Those lieutenants were not in a position to say 'We are Trikoupis' soldiers' and they were saying they were Mustafa Kemal's soldiers. But let us never forget that the teachers of the government, which wants to polarize this nation from the February 28 process, said 'I wish the Greeks had won,' that Tayyip Erdoğan visited Fesli Deli Kadir, who said 'May those who have an ounce of affection for Mustafa Kemal not come to my death or my life,' on his sickbed, and that he sent five ministers to the funeral he said 'Don't come to my life.' Therefore, the comparison of the February 28 process against those who say 'We are Mustafa Kemal's soldiers' will be much more correct in terms of reading history correctly at the point of Turkish army-Greek army, those who defeated the occupation forces-those who supported the occupation forces. Otherwise, if different structures are to be thought of within that army despite Mustafa Kemal's army, I would like to express once again what those who said 'We are Fetullah Gülen's soldiers' instead of 'We are Mustafa Kemal's soldiers' and those who gave them whatever they wanted made this nation experience on the evening of July 15. The Minister of National Defense pointed to today for that decision. We warn once again that stop these things. Stop taking such decisions and polarizing this nation, making them fight. Even if you shouldn't do it to these lieutenants, don't do it, but you touched them and removed them from their duties. As the Republican People's Party, we will stand by those lieutenants one by one. We will keep them by our side, as long as it is their desire. We will stand by them materially and spiritually. And we promise that we will win the next election and win back Mustafa Kemal's soldiers to Mustafa Kemal's army."

"LET US CONTINUE TO RAISE HOPE"

"My last word is this. You saw yesterday in Esenyurt how those who made a coup against democracy fell from the eyes and hearts of the nation. You saw the rebellion in the market, on the street last week in your provinces together with our deputies. You are on the street every day in every corner of Turkey, in Trabzon, in Antalya, in Tekirdağ, in Şırnak, in Van, in İzmir, in Konya, in Kayseri, you are side by side with our nation, hand in hand, heart to heart. The poverty you see, the desperation you see, the unemployment you see, the hopelessness you see. Let us continue to raise hope against this. Just as we ended the process that made people feel unhappy here while some made these places a rent gate with urban crimes, destroying the city's life, destroying the green, which lasted for years and ruined the city, and started to make faces smile in this beautiful city where we are guests today, if faces are smiling, despite all kinds of obstacles and restrictions for five years, despite the judicial coup from the first day against the people's will, against the people's choice, despite the judicial harassment in the process we are experiencing now, despite the fact that every ministry tries to prevent service to this city just by not signing the funds found from all over the world, if our nation appreciated and rewarded the municipalism done in Istanbul in the elections held five years later, if it increased its trust in Mr. Ekrem İmamoğlu, his team, and our party, this is what will happen in the first elections to come."

"THIS NATION'S GOAL IS TO SAVE ITS COUNTRY JUST AS IT SAVED ITS CITY FROM THIS MALICIOUS MINDSET"

"Look, just yesterday, the day before yesterday, the letter came. From the governorships to all municipalities. The mindless person who will be the first to write the letter will be the Minister of National Education. He says, 'Education is our business, municipalities are trying to do education with children's centers, don't let them open new ones, close the old ones.' They are trying to target the 650 nurseries that the Republican People's Party has opened so far, which is likely to exceed a thousand by January. What is the reason? Let me say it clearly in this hall. There is work. The female voter who voted for Binali Yıldırım in the last 2019 election, and even in the second election, and voted for Mr. Ekrem İmamoğlu in this election is asked. 'What was effective in this change of preference?' The first answer: Mother Card. I saw it with my own eyes, the mothers who came out in front of the bus we passed with Mayor Ekrem in the places where we are weakest in Istanbul, holding their child in one arm, taking out the Istanbul Card from their bag, making that heart sign to Mayor Ekrem with their child in one arm and a card in one finger, expressed that they changed their preferences through the Istanbul Card and saw who stood by them in difficult times. The second preference, the second most important liked service, is the nurseries. Nurseries, which create an opportunity to feed the child who cannot be fed well at home, who perhaps lacks milk and protein at home, and who introduces them to toys they cannot find or see at home, socializes them with their friends, and prepares them for pre-school education, are at symbolic fees in the examples of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, while they are normally 20 thousand liras. There is a minimum wage earner at home, the salary they receive goes to rent. If they pay rent, they go hungry, if they feed their stomachs, they get into a fight with the landlord. The woman needs to work, there is a small child, there are two children. She cannot give those children to a babysitter, it is the minimum wage money. But there is the nursery that Mayor Ekrem opened in that neighborhood right next to her. She gives her child to that nursery, goes to work, and brings one salary. Only in this way can she hold on to life a little bit in this impossibility created by this regime. Now those who see the satisfaction with that nursery, those who say 'Oh, the Republican People's Party is doing these, our voter's heart is shifting there,' say 'Stop, you can't do it, we will close these.' Look, Erdoğan had said 'Let Murat Kurum manage this city instead of Mayor Ekrem.' The Istanbulite said 'This is not a suitable person. You evaluate Murat Kurum in a more suitable place, we entrusted this city to the guardian of this city, we were very satisfied for five years and we want him to be in this position now, we want him to be in the best positions,' said the Istanbulite. That Murat Kurum had proposed a nursery in every neighborhood of Istanbul to win the election. Their mayoral candidates in Ankara proposed 100 nurseries in 100 days. Their mayoral candidates in İzmir proposed 100 new nurseries to İzmir. Now they lost the election. They say 'let's close' the nurseries opened by those who have done what they proposed in the past and are now doing it crackingly. This nation will not stay under this evil. It will not let this evil go unpunished. You cannot know what kind of emotion that food the children see and eat in that nursery, the attention, friendship, and companionship they see, and the feeling that they feel equal at an important hour of the day without discrimination creates in their mother, father, grandmother. If you target this, if you say 'Let's tie the hands of the Republican People's Party, let's collect the tax debt, SGK debt accumulated for years from our era with interest from today's municipalities, so they cannot provide services,' if you aim to hinder the good work done, this nation has one goal, and that is to save its country just as it saved its city from this malicious mindset. Until that day, we have sworn to work together, to fight together, to make Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's party the government in the general as we did in the local, to make this country smile, until that day, continue to work in 81 provinces, friends. Good luck, good luck, good luck."

News Source: 12punto