Özgür Özel spoke at the group meeting: İmamoğlu kept his promise

 

 

On Sunday, we were in 4 beautiful districts of Balıkesir, beautiful Balıkesir. They said, 'Is this the season to go to Edremit? All of Istanbul is there in the summer, hold a rally, it will be packed.' We said that this time we are not going to Edremit, which hosts guests, but to hear the voice of Edremit, which feeds us all, struggles for exports, tries to support itself, and is engaged in olive growing, to hear its cry and to announce it to Turkey. And of course, I say that the YENİ Party's cadres are on the streets, in the squares, and in the field. Because while the AK Party has become the party of the known funders, usurers, and profiteers, the YENİ Party is the party of the retiree, the worker, the tradesman, and the farmer.

 

You know, we founded the YENİ Party not out of pleasure, but out of necessity. We founded it not just to have a party, but so that it would be in power. We founded it not to be in opposition, but to show the nation the right path, to come to power, and to end their troubles. When the YENİ Party was founded, they asked, 'What is new about it?' We said the nation wanted it, so we founded the party. The nation named it, the YENİ Party. We accepted that name, we used that name. They attacked our name, they lost. There was no money, our nation created our budget, and when we talked about what is new about the YENİ Party, we said you will see, we will do what has always been talked about but never done. What will we do? In the YENİ Party, we will give the word, the decision, and the authority to the members. Whoever comes, it won't be through that delegate system, the requirement will be fulfilled, but the members will make the main decision. In the district congresses, the members came and elected the district chairs; in the provincial congresses, they elected the provincial chairs. Now it is time for the election of the chairman. We are exactly at that point now.

 

 

And a reminder from here: Not to cause controversy or to spite. You know, some say, 'If only you hadn't founded the YENİ Party, if you had stayed in the previous party, if you had waited.' Let's go there, to the end of June. We are struggling. The nation says, 'Find a way, take the party back. Let the cadres who won after 47 years and defeated the AK Party for the first time be in their duties in the party,' it says. We say then: 'Come and hold a convention.' 'We won't. We will start on September 9, we will announce the calendar, we will finish before November.' But there we saw that there is no such intention, on the contrary, there is such bad intention that the promises made are now coming out one by one. What does he say? 'I am ready to change the constitution,' he says. What does he say? 'I will sign the agreement that all the opposition opposes, I will send the Mehmetçik (Turkish soldiers) to the deserts, I am also in the agreement that Erdoğan made with instructions from Trump to protect Saudi Arabia, with the Mecca Agreement, to be on Saudi Arabia's side in the war,' he says. 'I will lift the immunities. I will even change the constitution for this.' Just as he caused Chairman Selahattin to go inside by facilitating and accelerating it with a constitutional amendment, he says he will do it for the YENİ Party cadres if necessary. What does he say? 'Even if the presidential election is 1 week early, I will vote, I will make Erdoğan a candidate again.' As long as you don't remove me from my seat. I will sit here, he says. I said it in those days. I said, if the intention was a convention, we are here. But they won't do it. They won't do it on September 9, they won't do it in October; they dragged it out as much as they could. They will close the path to the court. They didn't take our decision, they kept it at the Court of Cassation until the judicial recess. And from that day to this, they are expelling the administrators in that party one by one. Even if the Court of Cassation finds us right, let them not stay in that party, let that party not be taken back, and so on. Now, while all this is happening, on one side there is the will of the delegates; well, the will of the delegate is the delegate in the neighborhood, the delegate in the district, the delegate in the province. Who are these delegates in place of? They are delegates in place of the member. They are delegates in your place. Then at the end of June, I said here, 'I won't go anywhere. Come, let's enter the election with all the members. Come, let's compete with all the members. If the loser leaves the party to us.' I even said; 'If Özgür Özel receives less than 90 percent of the votes, he will not be a candidate, he will quit politics,' I said. The previous party had 2 million members. Come, let's ask the member, I said. He said, 'It is against the law, an election cannot be held with all members. It is done with delegates. We will renew the delegates first.' Even if it were with all members, he said it couldn't be done.

 

 

Now, as I said from here, not to spite, not to cause controversy. It has already been understood. It has been promised. What promises have been made that someone else has been brought in our place. Now there is no election concern or anything, they will scrape the whole party. Then they will do the election they will do in form. But what I said that day, that is, come let's elect with the members, they said no. I am giving a 90 percent advance, I said I would quit politics. They ran away from 2 million members. Well, this Sunday, we are electing the chairman of the YENİ Party with 800 thousand members in more than 900 districts in 81 provinces. The YENİ Party does not suggest to Turkey what it does not do in its own home. It does not make a promise it cannot keep. If it challenges somewhere, it does not eat its words, it does not go back on its word. Everyone who registers at the provincial and district presidencies until the end of business on November 5 can come to the ballot box on November 8 and personally determine the chairman of the YENİ Party. We invite all our citizens to protect this important step, which is very important for us and irreversible for Turkey, in terms of intra-party democracy and Turkish democracy, and to be with us in this process."