Özgür Özel speaks out on 'trustees' and 'new constitution'

Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Özgür Özel attended the 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Hacı Bektaş Veli Anatolian Culture Foundation.

MESSAGE ON THE CONSTITUTION

In his speech there, Özel touched upon the new constitution debates and noted the following:

"Sooner or later, we will make a constitution. We need to build, together, a social contract that truly meets the requirements of the age, is rid of the institutions of the coup, is rid of the practice of the coup; that is fully egalitarian, that sees nature, that sees the environment, for example, that embraces new constitutional concepts, that can intervene in certain inequalities and certain injustices in different ways, and that can make the Republic of Turkey one of the strongest, most advanced, most prosperous, and most peaceful countries in the world.

But we will make this contract by being vigilant against those who do not comply with today's constitution and against the clever tactics they use to rebuild and sustain their own regime over and over again."

REACTION TO TRUSTEES: THE MAIN ISSUE IS PUNISHING THE PUBLIC

Speaking about the trustees appointed to the municipalities of Esenyurt, Mardin, Batman, Halfeti, Tunceli, and Ovacık, Özel reacted with the words: "The main issue with the trustees appointed to CHP and DEM-run municipalities is to punish the public and to defy the will of the people. It means saying, 'You will choose me, I am the only option. If you choose anyone other than me, I will take away your right to vote.'"

Key highlights from Özel's speech are as follows:

“Everything actually depends on constitutional equal citizenship; it is written in the constitution of the Republic of Turkey that everyone is equal. However, we have very significant problems in the implementation of that constitution, in its laws, in the perspectives of lawmakers, in the perspectives of law enforcers, and due to established precedents. We are in Parliament, we are doing our duty.

We all come with the votes of the voters. Now, there are budget negotiations. One of the most important gains of the people is the right to the budget. As a result of a struggle dating back to the 1200s, elected officials, the Parliament, decide how, how much, and from whom money will be collected, and how, how much, and where it will be spent, and they do this with a budget law. In other words, the balance between the state's right hand that takes and collects and its compassionate left hand that distributes is established there.

When collecting the budget there, we have no difference. Taxes are collected without distinguishing between Alevi and Sunni. In fact, 68 percent of taxes in Turkey are collected through indirect taxes without distinguishing between rich and poor; 20 percent through deductions from salaries, and only 11-12 percent through taxes paid by those who actually earn money, that is, those who should really be paying taxes. And while both sides are subject to the same great injustice within this, later, when this money is spent, the mosque needs of Sunnis are met.

Mosques are built everywhere as needed. Their personnel, imams, and muezzins serve as civil servants. All their needs are met. But when the person who pays the same tax comes to receive service, they face discrimination there. And as if this discrimination were not enough, the mentality that this discrimination is based on is a mentality that actually denounces itself. When cornered, it once said, 'Cemevi is a place of revelry.'

Of course, when there is such an approach in mind, instead of showing the will to eliminate inequalities and create structures that can provide Alevis with the same services that Sunnis receive under equal conditions, they attached them to the Ministry of Culture. A department is being opened there. If the issue is revelry, it should be attached to the Ministry of Culture. The main problem there is to show the determination to accept that this is an equal faith and that the owners of this faith are equal, honorable citizens of this country.

Or rather, it is necessary to comply with the accepted social contract at this point, but those who do not do this intentionally and intervene in this area with the Department they established, by trying to tear the structure apart from within, by offering certain state resources, by holding alternative ceremonies by taking some representatives with them in Hacı Bektaş on a day when everyone should be one and together, preparing to say in the coming years 'this is the main ceremony, this is the official ceremony,' and on the other hand, with a minister in the field of National Education who is exactly in line with this perspective...

So they are actually saying, it is always said, 'The Minister of National Education is the worst minister of this cabinet, the most terrible minister.' I think he is the best Minister of this cabinet because he is the minister who best represents this cabinet. The Minister of National Education of this understanding, of the Justice and Development Party, is this. He has graves placed in the middle of the classroom, for children who should be learning to smile, even though we have left the February 6 earthquake behind, we have all cried together, we are all in mourning. And now we need to teach them to smile. You have already taught these children to cry for years.

"WE WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO DISREGARD THE ALEVI FAITH"

There comes a day when they attempt a lynching with their own municipal workers in the mosque, in a place where we won both the district and the metropolitan municipality with 60 percent on March 31, to create the image that the fellow citizens are attacking Özgür Özel. Why? Because I didn't meet with them under an A4 paper. Why did that soldier become a martyr, why did that soldier stand there, they refrain from giving information, they stand it up to the front of the Parliament, let all political parties sign this, let's condemn terrorism together.

I condemn it myself. I condemn it with everyone except the government. But we have no obligation to do everything that an understanding that does not solve that issue, but even instrumentalizes that issue and tries to establish power through a security concern, says, to meet with them on A4 papers, to meet with them in condemnation texts. There came a day with character assassinations, there came a day from social media, there came a day by encouraging some friends who think differently among us on certain issues, they are trying to harm this unity of ours, this power union of ours, us.

As the Republican People's Party, let me say this, we will continue to stand by whoever is right. We will continue to stand by the righteous against all injustices committed with courage. As the Chairman of the founding party of the Republic, I say that we will not allow anyone in this country to lower the flag, divide the homeland, or silence the call to prayer, but we will not allow you to sustain your power with this rhetoric and then persecute the muezzin or imam who recites that call to prayer, or while paying the salary of that muezzin or imam, to disregard the Alevi faith on the other side.

"A CONSTITUTION THAT EMBRACES NEW CONSTITUTIONAL CONCEPTS"

I would like to express that no one in this country has the right to claim that flag more than we do, that we do not see this as a monopoly for ourselves, but that we share it and will share it with everyone who is connected to this country by a bond of citizenship, and that we are with this determination. The far-right is rising all over the world, and there are those who cannot unite against them and bad politics that grant them this opportunity.

As the party that founded the Republic, I would like to reiterate our will to fight together by extending our hand to the entire opposition, to the entire opposition, and I don't just mean the left-wing opposition, that is, to everyone who wants this government to change, who says these inequalities should end, and not with a condescending, arrogant attitude, but with an egalitarian attitude. And sooner or later, we will make a constitution.

We need to build, together, a social contract that truly meets the requirements of the age, is rid of the institutions of the coup, is rid of the practice of the coup; that is fully egalitarian, that sees nature, that sees the environment, for example, that embraces new constitutional concepts, that can intervene in certain inequalities and certain injustices in different ways, and that can make the Republic of Turkey one of the strongest, most advanced, most prosperous, and most peaceful countries in the world.

But we will make this constitution by being vigilant against those who do not comply with today's constitution, against those who do an analysis that should be done to Erdoğan to Erdoğan, against those who do not even comply with the constitution made for himself now, and against the clever tactics he uses to rebuild and sustain his own regime over and over again, with some bargaining offers that go to us one day, to you another day, to someone else another day to satisfy our need to revise this constitution, which is actually for himself, as the junior partner says.

First, we will change this government together, then we will sit down and discuss a true social contract in all its aspects, implement it, and unlike the constitution passed in this country, we will write a constitution that satisfies the entire society, that is, 95 percent of it—a truly egalitarian constitution—and together we will bring this country to a much stronger point in the second century.

"WE ARE AT A CROSSROADS, AT A HISTORICAL JUNCTION"

We are at a crossroads, at a historical junction. That is, if we go in the direction Erdoğan says, we will return to the league of countries whose people are struggling with a national income of 3,000 or 4,000 dollars and whose leaders do not save on prestige. But we will take our place in the world with rich people, with modest leaders, with transparent politics, who can be held accountable with national incomes of over 50,000 dollars, and this time we will walk decisively from Turkey over other inequalities in the world.

In this process, we must be careful to establish our language correctly, not to give arguments to the other side, that is, to the opposition, to separate them from each other, we have talked about the places to be learned from in our 100-year history and the mistakes in the past, while we are all moving forward arm in arm in the second century. It is not the time to create hostility from the past, it is not the time to say certain sentences and give the government opportunities to separate the opposition.

It is not the time to deal with trifles, it is not the time to deal with petty grievances. It is the time to expand the front, increase determination, stand together, and believe with self-confidence that this regime can be changed.

On March 31, despite the disorganization of certain elements of the opposition and the fact that certain elements established a language that would serve the other side completely, and despite the fact that they pushed away many cooperation opportunities with the back of their hands and the mistakes that would contribute to the Palace achieving a local election success, the society, with our call, with our calls, and with its own wisdom, mind, and conscience, with the Turkey alliance or with the alliance it formed from its own heart where democratic forces in Turkey were candidates, either made those municipalities win or achieved very good results very close to winning against this government.

Now, those who are in the indigestion of this process, those who crown the national will when the votes are given to them; when the votes are given to others, this time they start to defy, hold accountable, and punish. If they find out who the opposition is, they put them in prison, but there is a secret ballot in the election, they couldn't find it, they are punishing collectively.

"THE MAIN ISSUE IS PUNISHING THE PUBLIC"

The main issue, that is, the appointment of a trustee in Esenyurt and the appointment of a trustee to Ahmet Türk in Mardin, the main issue with the trustees appointed to CHP and DEM-run municipalities is to punish the public and to defy the will of the people. It means saying, 'You will choose me, I am the only option. If you choose anyone other than me, I will take away your right to vote.' We went with a delegation when they tried to repeat the disgrace of giving the mandate to the second person in Van last term, we were there, standing tall. We also objected to the trustee in Hakkari. We did not reject anyone who came to show solidarity in Esenyurt, we were all together.

Afterwards, we did not refrain from getting on the bus with Ahmet Türk in Mardin, for example, and condemning this. Because the issue is this, if the work done was not because of a crime, all processes would end anyway and the municipal council would elect a new one. But this is already a coup, a state of emergency logic, something that happens during martial law periods, and it is a remnant of the state of emergency.

"WE MUST BE TOGETHER WITH GOOD INTENTIONS"

Finally, what they did in Ovacık and Tunceli. Well, there is a funeral in 2012, this funeral was attended. Now, first of all, there is a fundamental issue. Condolences are given to the living, not the dead. No one is responsible for the political views, crimes, organization, or whatever of their child who has lost their life. There are such mothers and fathers who have children in two opposing organizations that are in conflict with each other. You cannot hold this mother and father responsible for the views of their child, or for the way the person who comes to offer condolences gives condolences, this is the first thing.

Even more tragic, the period is a different period, in that period the Prosecutor calls the mayors and says, 'If we send this funeral, there will be a conflict, we will have martyrs. Take the initiative so that this does not happen right now. As the Mayor, ask, if it happens, you go.' It is asked, it is gone, the burial is accompanied, it is attended, condolences are given to the family, and it is returned.

There is an understanding that considers this a terrorist activity. Like a bankrupt merchant rummaging through old books, not seeing from 2012 to 2022, and in 2022, without looking at the spirit of that period, what was happening in Turkey at that time, what was being talked about, what you were saying to them, they turn around, extract a crime from there, and come here and appoint a trustee with an investigation they opened 12 years ago, 2 years ago. That's why it's clear what they are trying to do, but we need to explain our problem to our people correctly.

For this, it is necessary to be very careful, to see why these processes were started and what parties and institutions are being forced into, what they hope for from here; not to fall into their trap, but not to lose anything from one's existence, unity, harmony, and determination just because we will not fall into the trap.

The success of the opposition will find balance exactly where this balance is, exactly at this point. That's why we must be together with determination and good intentions on how we can give strength to each other and how we can make the opposition common without harming each other, and how we can succeed together in total."

News Source: 12punto