Statement from former Ülkü Ocakları chairmen on Ümit Özdağ! 'The price they want to make us pay today...'

Zafer Party leader Ümit Özdağ, who was detained in Ankara on allegations of insulting AKP Chairman and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has been arrested and sent to Silivri Prison on charges of "publicly inciting the people to hatred and enmity."

Former chairmen of the Ülkü Ocakları have released a statement regarding Özdağ.

The statement, which bears the signatures of 7 former chairmen including Zafer Party Spokesperson Azmi Karamahmutoğlu, reads as follows:

"Joint Press Release by Former Chairmen of the Ülkü Ocakları

The price they want to make Mr. Ümit Özdağ, Chairman of the Zafer Party, pay today is neither the first price that Turkish nationalists have been forced to pay, nor will it be the last. Because in these lands where we have fought for a thousand years to hold our ground, every nationalist will stand as a flag-bearer whenever glory is sought, and will never hesitate to pay the price.

Turkish nationalists do not and cannot accept a new process in which baby killers are transformed into respected interlocutors. They do not show respect to hands reaching out to terrorists whose lips are still dripping with blood, nor do they bow to their judgment. They will not cast a shadow over the lonely but noble days of 1944 and 1980, when even the dogs laughed at our isolation.

The fact that the so-called legal process, which has stripped Mr. Özdağ of his freedom, is taking place simultaneously with a second 'solution process'—a successor to the first one that ended with 784 martyrs—reveals the intention behind the scenes. This move, which serves as an intimidation tactic against elements with the potential to resist the second solution process that could lead to the country's fragmentation, is absolutely unacceptable to us.

In a Middle Eastern geography that has turned into a scene of fire, it is one of the gravest contradictions history has ever seen that while terrorists are shown the path to Parliament, the nation's own children are deemed worthy of prison. What war did the Turkish state lose that we are being forced into conditions akin to the Armistice of Mudros?

We, the undersigned, declare that the treatment of Mr. Özdağ is unjust, that we will never accept the attempt to intimidate Turkish nationalists in the person of Özdağ in order to clear the stones on that cursed path while granting a 'right to hope' to a baby killer, and we announce that we will fight to the end within the framework of democracy and law.

Signatories:

Atila Kaya

Servet Avcı

Alişan Satılmış

Ulvi Batu

Suat Başaran

Emir Kuşdemir

Azmi Karamahmutoğlu"

News Source: 12punto