Breaking News: Özgür Özel challenges Kılıçdaroğlu: 'Let's compete, if I don't get 90 percent of the vote, I will quit politics'

Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel made evaluations at his party's group meeting in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM).

A VERY HARSH RESPONSE TO KILIÇDAROĞLU REGARDING A NEW PARTY

Özel gave a harsh response to Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's call to 'stay in the party' and his remarks regarding a possible new party.

The CHP leader stated the following:

"No one is curious about forming a new party, but the retiree, whose hope you have exhausted by cutting off our march to power in the streets and dragging the party below the threshold, is asking about a new party!

My aunt, who picks cherries with her calloused hands, is asking; the apprentice in the industry is asking; the youth are asking about a new party.

Then he says, 'I don't understand why you are talking about a new party'…

You come without being elected, you get appointed by the AK Party judiciary, you beam yourself from 6 years ago to today with a certificate of election that didn't exist then, and 500 delegates who voted for you signed for a convention.

In this convention, 1333 delegates gave their votes to the winning CHP's march to power, having sworn not to lose with the highest vote in history.

'I will not hold a convention, I will start in September. If there is an early election, I will be caught like this by the AK Party, I will make everyone lose hope...' Then he says, 'I don't understand at all why a new party is being discussed...'

The nation understands why it is being discussed.

If you exhaust the nation's hope here, the nation seeks hope in a new party!"

HISTORIC CALL TO KILIÇDAROĞLU

Chants of 'Traitor Kemal' were heard in the group hall. Özgür Özel intervened.

Continuing his speech, Özel made a historic call to Kılıçdaroğlu. The CHP leader stated, "Let the two of us compete with 2 million members; if I receive less than 90 percent of the vote, I will quit politics! I had said, 'If I don't make the party the leading party, I will quit politics.' I did it. Now I say, 'If I don't get 90 percent of the vote, I will quit politics.' Winning is a matter of claiming victory. I am putting it on the table. I invite them to step up!"

Here are the first headlines from Özel's speech:

After a one-week break, we are back in our nation's parliament. The parliament was closed last week due to the NATO summit. We held our meeting in Eskişehir last week. Following our group meeting, together with those who listened to our meeting, those who hosted us that day, our provincial head, our Metropolitan Mayor, the legendary mayor of our metropolitan city and Eskişehir, Yılmaz Büyükerşen, our deputies, and our organization, we took to the streets in Eskişehir. It was enthusiastic in the halls, but the streets of Eskişehir flowed like a flood. First of all, I would like to send greetings from our group to beautiful Eskişehir, which embraced us as a whole and stood behind us during this difficult period.

We were with our nation in Adana and Niğde over the weekend. First, we were with the Yörüks from Mersin and Adana who spend the summer in Pozantı, Akçatekir Plateau, and Tekir Plateau. We were their guests. We kissed the hands of our mothers and received their prayers. We all heard the painful cry of an older brother who said, 'Save us from what we are going through now.'

We moved from Pozantı to Adana. While expecting Adana to be completely empty in the middle of summer, the streets to be empty in the middle of the day, and no one to be in Adana in that heat where Adana is scorching; we showed all of Turkey that no one can stand in front of the flood of the people and love in Adana, with the Adana residents shouting 'The knife has reached the bone,' the tradesmen saying 'We are closing without a sale,' and the retirees saying 'Save us from this misery' joining our arms.

I am calling out to the brave people of Çukurova once again from here: As long as you have this faith and this courage, no one will be able to defeat you or us. We will change this order; we will bring both justice and abundance to these lands.

"WE WILL NOT DISAPPOINT THE HOPES OF OUR SISTER MÜZEYYEN"

We started Sunday morning in a cherry orchard in Niğde Ulukışla, drinking tea from the calloused hands of our peasant aunts working in that orchard. We listened to the livelihood struggles of those who came to pick cherries. We listened to the troubles of those who had to sell cherries at the cost of picking, and how the interest on debts accumulated from previous years crushed them, and this remained in our minds from the cherry orchard: 'They forgot us, Mr. Chairman,' said an aunt, 'They forgot us.'

My aunt in the cherry orchard said: 'You won't forget us. When you get up there, I will take off these traditional shoes (çarık) and come to you too.' I made a pact with my aunt on your behalf. My aunt will come to wherever we are, without taking off those beautiful shoes, in that beautiful outfit; we will host her at the very top of the state, at the very top!

In Niğde center... Niğde center surprised all of Turkey. That place also flowed like a flood. A disabled vehicle came in front of that flood. Everyone got worried, we ran, we stopped, we said, 'Careful,' 'don't let it get crushed.' 'No,' he said, 'I came to see the Chairman.' His name is Fuat Baş. He took out a large, red prayer bead. 'I came to give you these beads,' he said. 'Don't do it, brother,' I said. 'Take this,' he said, 'You will bring it back. Take this, go, win, come to power, you will bring these beads back.' We are keeping the prayer beads of our brother Fuat Baş in trust, to be returned when we come to power.

In Niğde, our 100-year-old party member, our oldest female member, Aunt Müzeyyen, came in her wheelchair in the middle of the heat. She reached us. She sat on the edge of the bench where we were talking and said: 'My child,' she said, 'I walked with Atatürk. I walked after İnönü. I walked after Karaoğlan. Now you are at the front of our party, and I am behind you again. We will march to power,' said Aunt Müzeyyen.

Therefore, we will never disappoint the hopes of our brother Fuat from Niğde, who entrusted his prayer beads to us, or our sister Müzeyyen, our first women's branch president who came at the age of 100 and added strength to our power, or our aunt, or our mother. I swear that we will never, ever again make them or anyone who trusts us experience sadness, defeat, or embarrassment!

"I AM CALLING OUT TO THOSE WHO CANNOT GO OUT TO THE STREETS..."

I am calling out to those who are trapped in halls, those who do politics at the desk, and those who cannot go out to the streets, especially Mr. Erdoğan. There is no fear in our nation, there is no surrender in our nation. There is faith, there is perseverance, there is determination. Throughout history, no power has been able to stand against the rushing flood of the people, and it will not be able to now. Perhaps we do not have offices or flashy stages. Sometimes we are on a bench, sometimes on a chair, but let everyone's heart be at ease, and let there be good news for all of us, that we are in the hearts of our nation.

"WE CONDEMN, REJECT, AND CURSE THE DECISION OF THE EP"

While talking about our martyrs and veterans, I would like to emphasize from this podium in the clearest way that our heroic army, the Turkish Armed Forces, is our honor.

As the Republican People's Party, we condemn, reject, and curse in the strongest terms the decision taken in the European Parliament regarding the Cyprus Peace Operation, which tries to stain our army with disgusting accusations - I don't say unfair, I say disgusting accusations!

With the sending of our army to Cyprus by Karaoğlan, the late Ecevit, together with the late Erbakan, the Deputy Prime Minister of that day, in a place where peace could not be achieved despite all efforts, where people were subjected to heavy oppression for years, and massacres amounting to genocide, with the successful operations of both the Airborne Brigade and the landing fleets in Cyprus, advancing only as far as to ensure peace, not to occupy Cyprus, as Ecevit heralded that day, going to the island not for war but for peace, bringing peace to both the Turkish side and the Greek side, and doing their duty in the operation they participated in, giving their lives if necessary, but never having faced even the slightest accusation that would amount to a war crime to this day, never being placed in the same place as the enemy, we embrace all our veterans and the families of our martyrs with gratitude as the Republican People's Party group, and we kiss their hands in the face of this slander that is being tried to be cast upon our clean, shining Cyprus veterans who are still standing tall, and we wish God's mercy upon those who died.

TO MINISTER TEKİN: IMPUDENT, INCOMPETENT, INCAPABLE...

We received another devastating piece of sad news from Osmaniye this week. Our 16-year-old child, Yiğit Mehmet Kesme, who was made to repair tractors within the scope of the MESEM project, died tragically after getting stuck in the hydraulic system of the tractor. We wish God's mercy upon Yiğit and patience for his family.

However, 34 children have lost their lives in work-related murders while working in Turkey just this year. 21 of them were working within the scope of MESEM. If the impudent, incompetent, incapable person appointed to the head of the Ministry of National Education is busy changing the name of the War of Independence, our children are losing their lives in his place of duty. We will ask the account of these 21 children in the MESEM project, while vocational training and field training have not taken a single life or caused a loss of limb in Germany for 40 years, from whom if not from that impudent person? We will ask for it sooner or later!

"A TAX SYSTEM WHERE THE RICHEST AND THE POOREST PAY THE SAME..."

The biggest and most fundamental problem in our country is, of course, injustice. This injustice is not limited to the courts. Once the scales of justice are broken, the great injustice in income and taxes becomes the issue that hurts the citizen the most. Economic crises used to happen. The 1994 crisis, the 2001 crisis... It happens that year, it either ends or the wounds start to heal the following year.

But we have been in a crisis that hasn't ended since 2018. We have been in an environment of multiple crises since the day we switched to the one-man regime. Crises that trigger each other, crises that follow each other, endless crises, and as a result, we are first in Europe and fifth in the world with an inflation rate of 32%. We are first in Europe and fifth in the world with 35% food inflation.

We are first in Europe in the categories of poverty, unemployment, income inequality, and tax injustice separately. These are all official data. And 65% of the tax in Turkey is collected through indirect taxes, which is the most unjust tax system in the world that does not distinguish between rich and poor, that is, indirect taxes where the richest man in Turkey and the poorest man pay the same tax on shopping.

"IT IS CLEAR HOW A MUNICIPALITY SHOULD BE AUDITED"

A handful of people who have fallen from the hearts and eyes of the nation have killed justice in Turkey for their own interests. We, all together, realized a great change in our party in November 2023. 4 months later, with our new staff, all together, trusting more women, more youth; trusting in measurement and evaluation, we determined each of our candidates by conducting surveys —that is, except for cases of certain victory or certain defeat— where the population is suitable and the race is risky. And in the first election held, as we promised, we defeated the Justice and Development Party for the first time. 47 years later, we made our party the leading party for the first time.

Since that day, we have been the target of all anti-democratic attacks. We are the CHP that wins, not the one that loses. We are the CHP that refuses to lose. We are the CHP that sees for the first time the challenge that Tayyip Erdoğan, who said 'If we lose an election, we will go to the convention the next day and I will not be a candidate,' has been making for a quarter of a century; asking 'If I lose, I will not stay in office, won't you?' and not being able to hear Tayyip Bey's voice.

To date, they have carried out operations against a total of 34 of our mayors, including our Presidential candidate. Currently, 24 of our mayors are still in prison. Most of these operations were carried out by an instructed structure created within the judiciary in Istanbul; it happened in front of everyone's eyes. In front of everyone's eyes! Then the head of that structure, supposedly neutral, his origin is deputy minister, from there Chief Prosecutor; supposedly neutral, the next day minister... The next day at the Provincial Heads meeting, he says 'I will continue to work for the success of our party.' As it was yesterday, while he was wearing a prosecutor's robe, he was working for the success of the party; today, with the identity of a minister, someone who says 'I will work for the success of my party' has come, and as we all heard, as everyone knows... Deputy Chief Prosecutors in Ankara will change, because what they mean by 'They are not doing the operations we told them to' is this; let's explain it, let's explain it simply:

It is clear how a municipality should be audited. Either it is audited routinely; that is, they go randomly or at regular times, documents are requested, and it is audited by auditors who know the job, by inspectors. If a deficiency is seen, it is asked, if a fault is seen, it is written, if there is a suspicion of a crime, permission is requested from the ministry to be tried. If there is an allegation —that is, if someone has filed a complaint, if there is a report— they go, that report is examined, and it proceeds towards audit and judiciary with the same procedures. There is no other way or method of auditing other than this.

HE RESPONDED TO KILIÇDAROĞLU'S 'STAY IN THE PARTY' CALL

Now, now let's see this. On the one hand, 'Sir, will a new party be formed? Sir, don't let it be formed, where are you going, why are you going?' I couldn't understand.

No one is curious about forming a new party, but the retiree, whose hope you have exhausted by cutting off our march to power in the streets and dragging the party below the threshold, is asking about a new party. He asks like this, like this. He pinches my arm saying 'new party'.

My aunt, who picks cherries with her calloused hands, is asking about a new party. The apprentice working in the industry all day is asking. Those who say 'If I get the reward for my sweat, I will get it under the rule of social democrats, I will reach the union, I will work better tomorrow or the next day' are looking for a new party.

The youth who say 'I can no longer live in this country, I will go to another part of the world' are asking about a new party. Then he says 'I don't understand, why are you talking about a new party?'

You come without being elected, you get appointed by the AK Party judiciary, you beam yourself from 6 years ago to today with a certificate of election that didn't exist then; the delegate given to you, 500 of whom gave their vote to me, not you, in that election. Oh, one understands something from this. 500 delegates who voted for you in that election, where you said "the will was crippled," signed saying 'Come, let's renew the convention,' but no to that.

In this convention, 1333 delegates gave their votes to the winning CHP's march to power, having sworn not to lose with the highest vote in history; 'I will not hold a convention. If I do, it will start in September, I will stall until April. If there is an early election, I will be caught like this by the AK Party. I will make everyone lose hope.' Then 'Oh, why a new party, why is it being discussed, I don't understand at all.' The nation understands why it is being discussed. If you exhaust the nation's hope here, the nation seeks hope in a new party!

News Source: 12punto