DEM Party statement on Ahmet Özer: 'The message is very clear! They want to send a message to Istanbul'

While the Istanbul 7th Criminal Court of Peace decided to arrest CHP's Esenyurt Mayor Ahmet Özer on charges of "being a member of the PKK/KCK armed terrorist organization," Istanbul Deputy Governor Can Aksoy was appointed as a trustee to the municipality.

'THEY WANT TO SEND A MESSAGE TO THE CITY CONSENSUS AND TO ISTANBUL'

DEM Party Spokesperson Ayşegül Doğan stated the following in her press release:

"What are we talking about? We are talking about Turkey's largest province and its largest district. We are talking about Esenyurt, where 1.5 million people live. What are they saying? They want to send a message to the city consensus, they want to send a message to Istanbul. We are facing the same setup, the same game.

You can be a candidate in elections, you can even receive over 49 percent of the vote in elections, you can be elected. You can impress people with your projects from the very first day. We will first use perception, then the media, and, in quotation marks, the judiciary to carry out a political operation and make it impossible for you to serve as mayor.

The message is very clear. We will continue political operations with perception, media, and the judiciary hand in hand.

Why can we arrest you? We prepare with information we have prepared in advance. The presumption of innocence has already disappeared. This usurpation of will is evil."

RESPONSE TO ERDOĞAN

Doğan also commented on the call by President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to evaluate the process "without prejudice" following the statements made by MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli.

Doğan stated the following:

"You asked us to evaluate the latest developments without prejudice. To evaluate without prejudice, one must abandon the methods of the past."

News Source: 12punto