Striking messages from Özgür Özel in İzmir: 'You are not a global leader, you are a local dictator'

The CHP's "The Nation Protects Its Will" rallies stopped in İzmir for the May 19 Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day.

Hundreds of thousands gathered at Gündoğdu Square with Turkish flags.

İzmir hosted a historic rally on the 106th anniversary of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's arrival in Samsun on May 19, 1919.

Citizens from many districts of İzmir set off for Gündoğdu Square by boat. They sang national anthems while waving Turkish flags.

ÖZGÜR ÖZEL AND HIS WIFE TOOK THE STAGE WITH GREAT ENTHUSIASM

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel and his wife Didem Özel took the stage at 19:19 with great enthusiasm.

IZMIR METROPOLITAN MUNICIPALITY MAYOR TOOK THE STAGE

CHP İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Cemil Tugay made statements at the rally.

Tugay said the following in his speech:

"My good-hearted, conscientious, enlightened people of my beautiful country. Welcome. Today is May 19! It is a very special and valuable day for us for 106 years. It is the day our Ancestor took the first step to save our country under occupation and oppression. It is the day our honorable people said no to captivity and stood up by saying either independence or death. And this is İzmir, the city of liberation and victory. It has experienced the heaviest occupation of the national struggle. We are in the city of people who were massacred in the first two days of the occupation, but who never gave up their struggle until liberation. İzmir is the city of resistance.

Because İzmir has experienced captivity, it knows the value of freedom. İzmir is the city of freedom. İzmir does not bow to injustice and does not surrender to oppression. How happy are those who know the value of İzmir and protect its values. Today is May 19, today is the holiday of the youth of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Happy holiday to us. May the Republic of Turkey be eternal. In his Nutuk, our Atatürk said that he understood that our nation had the ability to develop in its conscience and that he kept this truth inside him like a national secret. In other words, Atatürk believed in our nation. He said that the independence of the nation would be saved by the determination and resolve of the nation again."

İMAMOĞLU'S MESSAGE WAS READ

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor and presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was arrested on March 23, sent a message from Silivri prison to the hundreds of thousands gathered at İzmir Gündoğdu Square.

CHP İzmir Provincial Chairman Şenol Aslanoğlu read İmamoğlu's message. In his message, İmamoğlu used the following expressions:

“My beautiful people of beautiful İzmir, my precious citizens who fill Gündoğdu Square with all the colors of the Aegean, my dear youth who are the hope of our future; Happy May 19 Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day.

Exactly 106 years ago, in those dark days of 1919, a step was taken that changed the ill-fated destiny of a nation. Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk started a nation's march of liberation and dignity by landing in Samsun. The march that started in Samsun that day was shaped with determination in Amasya, crowned with the support of the people in Sivas and Erzurum, became the will of the nation with the Parliament in Ankara, and went down in history as the victory of the nation in İzmir, the city of liberation and foundation. Today, here, we who follow in the footsteps of the liberation struggle he started are taking the step of a new awakening, a new resistance, a new liberation from İzmir. That day, there was a nation standing up against imperialism. Today, there is a nation standing up against injustice, inequality, discrimination, and a system that condemns the people to poverty.

“IN MOMENTS WHEN YOU FALL INTO DESPAIR; REMEMBER THE TURKISH NATION THAT DEDICATED ITSELF TO THE DEFENSE OF THE HOMELAND WHILE TIRED, HURT AND POOR”

The hope that set out from Samsun that day has been rising from a different square and a different city every day since March 19. The voice of the nation is rising from İzmir today as well. İzmir is the place where this country fired the first bullet and the last bastion always remained standing. The voice rising from this city today has the power to change the fate of not just one region, but all of Turkey. Does changing the fate of Turkey seem difficult to you? Does rebuilding the future of Turkey seem impossible? In moments when you fall into despair; remember the Turkish nation that dedicated itself to the defense of the homeland while tired, hurt and poor. Remember the heroes of the national struggle who believed that new suns would rise on these lands in the darkest times of circumstances and conditions, and who risked everything. The fate of this country will either change or it will change. Enough is enough! This nation does not have to live in a system where only a handful of people have access to opportunities and resources, while everyone else is exposed to economic, legal and social inequalities. These lands are not condemned to discrimination and favoritism. That is why we shout in every square, ‘There is no salvation alone’. There is no salvation alone, none.

“THERE IS NO SALVATION ALONE, ALL TOGETHER ON DUTY”

We will reach the days when everyone will live a free, fair and prosperous life by fighting together. We will get our economy back on its feet with a strong, democratic state understanding. We will make İzmir and the Aegean the center of production, design, export, agriculture and technology again. We will offer jobs to everyone, peace to every household, and a future to every child. This is not just an election struggle, this is a new struggle for liberation. We are coming to establish the power of the nation. We are coming to build an administration that is at peace with its nation and accountable to its people. We are coming for equality again, justice again, brotherhood again. We are coming with the conscience of the youth, the energy of the youth, the courage of the youth. We are coming so that the youth can build the life they dream of here, in their own homeland, with their own hands. We will win. 86 million conscientious patriots will win. Those who are afraid of eating rights, but never let their rights be eaten, will win. Justice, dignity and courage will win. Come on İzmir; there is no salvation alone, all together on duty… Ekrem İmamoğlu. Silivri Prison.”

ÖZGÜR ÖZEL TOOK THE PODIUM

CHP leader Özgür Özel took the podium by reading Nazım Hikmet's poem 'Invitation'. Starting his speech with the lines "This country, which stretches like the head of a mare from distant Asia to the Mediterranean, is ours," Özel's speech is as follows:

"My dear İzmir, my dear İzmir, whom I always love, who fired both the first and the last bullet. İzmir, where the sea is blue and hearts are red and white. Hello İzmir, hello... Today we are in the city where I came as a child, grew up, and studied. Today, millions of us are together in this square. Today is May 19 Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day. 106 years ago today, in the darkest days of Anatolia, Mustafa Kemal started this nation's Struggle for Independence from Samsun. We also started our struggle from Samsun with the March 19 coup. They didn't see any harm in being under the protection of global powers that day, and it's the same today. Just as Mustafa Kemal declared war on the palace that was a prisoner of the British that day, we are raising the flag of democracy from Gündoğdu today against the minority government that has become a civil servant to imperialism.

The Republican People's Party is the party of those who tore up Sèvres, those who made Lausanne, and those who made the seven nations accept the title deed of this country. Lausanne is the document that this nation will not bow to any power. In the National Struggle, there were Turks, Kurds, Alevis, that is, all the colors of this country. Today, we are together with all the democrats of Turkey.

Having the courage to defend the rights of both Ekrem İmamoğlu, Selahattin Demirtaş, and Ümit Özdağ, and to demand freedom for all of them at once, is a courage that only democrats can have. If there is a voice rising together, autocrats are afraid, dictators are afraid. Greetings to those who are here, greetings to social democrats, liberal democrats, conservative democrats, Kurdish democrats, well done.

HE ADDRESSED ERDOĞAN: 'DO YOU SEE ANYONE AFRAID?'

These lands are not the lands of servants who pray to their executioner, but of a free nation that does not kneel before the oppressor. Let those who do not see Gündoğdu Square see it. Hey Erdoğan, do you see Gündoğdu Square! You thought you could win by putting your rivals in jail, you thought you could scare the youth by putting them in dungeons. Do you see anyone afraid in this square, do you see any cowards? We left fear at home. Because those who founded this republic were not afraid, those who were not afraid founded the republic. Those who are not afraid are protecting it. We are not afraid either. We do not surrender to your oppression.

There is now a government that cannot go out among the people from warm halls! There is now a government that does not have the support of the nation behind it. If it did, it would not attempt a coup, it would not be afraid of the ballot box. If they were not afraid, they would not hide behind three prosecutors and three secret witnesses.

İzmir is not the fortress of the CHP, but the fortress of the Republic itself. For those who see cities as someone's fortress, fortress politics, the politics of hoping for a fight is over. Fortresses are over, fortresses belong to the nation. They belong to the Republic. May all our fortresses be sacrificed for the future of this nation. There is now a government that does not have the support of this nation behind it. There is a government that has lost its legitimacy, is exhausted, aged, and tired. It has fallen from the heart of the nation, fallen from its eyes...

According to the polls, there is an alliance that has become the 2nd party and is trying to stay on its feet by arm-in-arm with the 5th party. We are watching this 2-5 government, this handful of people, trying to draw a direction for the nation today. Those who cannot get the consent of the nation want to rule the country with tutelage. Remember, as long as the CHP exists, as long as these squares are full. From now on, no one will be able to draw a direction for this nation. Let everyone know this."

HE LISTED HIS PROMISES

We promise a Turkey where bans are banned. We will abolish YÖK and make universities free. We will provide quality education to everyone. In our government, every young person who graduates from high school will know a very good foreign language and will have the technology to compete with the world. We will end favoritism. I swear that we will abolish interviews in the public sector. We will increase dormitory capacities and raise scholarship and loan amounts to a livable level. We will definitely ensure the freedom of communication and freedom of transportation for young people; their easy access to these. We promise that everyone will benefit from them at European standards, but priced according to income status. We will solve the visa problem from the root. We will establish a Turkey that has become a full member of the European Union. We will make this country a country of youth. We will implement a Turkey without bans and without visas in the first years of our government."

"YOU ARE A LOCAL DICTATOR"

It is not possible to make a world leader, a global leader out of Erdoğan. If you are not a democrat locally, you cannot be a global leader anyway, and I am telling you this while looking into your eyes. You are not a global leader, you are a local dictator; you are an autocrat. You are a one-man ruler. Let local dictators be afraid of this nation. Let the cowards who put their rivals in jail be afraid of this nation, and rest assured that you will be defeated. In history, many fortresses have been demolished by a pebble thrown by a child. Many governments have been shaken and demolished by a mother's curse. You will be defeated by the spirit of March 23."

HE OPENED THE ARCHIVE: HE SHOWED ERDOĞAN'S FOOTAGE

Özgür Özel showed the hundreds of thousands in the rally area footage containing the 'contradictory' statements of AKP President Erdoğan.

Özel said, "He is trying to deceive the nation with fictional videos, let's not do like him. Let us show you his lies."

News Source: 12punto