Özgür Özel recalled the presidential elections and commemorated Ferdi Zeyrek

The CHP Manisa Provincial Branch held its 39th Ordinary Provincial Congress at the Atatürk Indoor Sports Hall. CHP Chairman Özgür Özel also attended the congress. Speaking at the congress, Özgür Özel made the following remarks:

"It was September 24, 2023. We were in this hall, competing. We were saying, 'We can do better.' Unfortunately, we had lost the elections on May 14 and 28. There was a huge emotional disconnect among the electorate. The number of teachers going to the Teachers' House had decreased. We were in a state of despair, an emotional disconnect, where no one looked at you or raised their eyes. And during that period, my friends and I said, 'If the CHP changes, Turkey will change.' We all set out together. Our candidate at that day's congress was Ferdi Zeyrek. He is still the last elected provincial chairman of Manisa."

HER EYES WERE TEARED AS SHE SPOKE

Özel, who became emotional while describing the congress day, said:

As we were touring the convention hall, President Özgür said, "The Istanbul delegation is there." Istanbul was providing great support with maybe 800 people in the hall. We turned the corner, and there was Manisa with 2,500 people, and you were there. At that moment, I heard Ferdi's voice behind me. He turned to President Özgür and said, "How did this happen in Manisa?"

Özel also recalled the CHP's success in the municipal elections. Highlights from Özel's speech include:

"After 47 years, we first changed Manisa. We changed Türkiye. Then, we achieved great success in the local elections, and our opponents, along with our nation, were convinced that these were steps toward a change of government. Our opponents saw that this enthusiasm, this excitement, this hope, this youthful energy, this march that sees women and men as equals, engages in politics together, and promises equality for Türkiye, justice in the courts, and justice in income and taxes, was spreading throughout Anatolia, just like the march of 100 years ago. And they began to take precautions against it."

REMINDER OF JULY 15: THERE ARE THOSE WHO CAN'T SHOW THE PATIENCE WE HAVE SHOWN FOR 47 YEARS FOR 47 DAYS

We have no say in the political measures taken, no competition. We compete. If we win, we come to power; if we lose, we work for a new one. This is what democracy requires. Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk went to Anatolia, first liberation, then organized the establishment. He established the Parliament before even taking to the battlefield. He won the war with the authority of Commander-in-Chief. They ask, "Sultanship?" No. He says, "We established a Parliament, and we will carry out whatever the nation assigns us." They say, "Be the eternal president." He says, "I seek the immortality of the national will." But unfortunately, while we remained in opposition for 47 years with this mindset, becoming the second-largest party, never straying from democracy. In fact, while they were coddling our greatest rival, giving him tanks, dressing him in robes, empowering him, and filling his epaulettes, while they staged a coup, we were the ones who suggested opening the closed Parliament. We paid no attention to the coup plotters, only alarm. We are faced with those who cannot show the patience we have shown for 47 years, even for 47 days."

-"In this journey we started in Manisa, despite the great success we gained after the local elections and all the attacks we faced, we were thinking step by step about how to govern this country better, how to ensure social peace first, then how to fix the legal system. At that time, with the economic measures we were going to take quickly, retirees, minimum wage earners, and tradesmen, each of whom were stunned, were looking at us, saying, 'What will save us from this situation?' After changing our bylaws, we started to work on how to save them from this situation, with our actions, studies, and meetings for a year.

After holding our grand congress in Ankara and being freed from all these attacks carried out by the Justice and Development Party's 'judicial branches', those who are trying to drag us down, we will all together begin a new march and a work that we will complete without taking a breath.

1000-DAY ELECTION CAMPAIGN DECISION

"They revoked the document the Supreme Election Council (YSK) only accepted for presidential candidacy, Ekrem President Ekrem's university degree. This meant, 'You're going to experience something starting tomorrow. Our concern is Ekrem İmamoğlu running for president. We won't allow it.' When we woke up to that bad news at 6 the next morning, we left for Istanbul after a quick Central Executive Committee (MYK) meeting. There, I thought, 'If it were held on election day, there would be approximately 1,000 days. We need a 1,000-day election campaign. Tonight, I'll be climbing onto the bus in Saraçhane and never getting off. Let's take this issue from the courtroom corridors, where they're trying to drag it, to the squares. Let's explain our problem to the people. Like every coup, this is being done against the government, against the next government. It's being done against the current government using the resources of the current government. We said, there's no other way to resist this.'"

"No matter what, we cannot abandon this march. If we abandon it, we will fall. If we stumble, this nation will fall. If we say one less word, this nation will remain silent; if we take one step back, they will set the country back 1,000 years. If we bow down an inch, they will bring this nation to its knees. That is why we will not step back, nor will we take a single step back."

"EKREM IMAMOGLU WILL BECOME PRESIDENT"

"Two candidates are currently competing. One lives in a palace with 1,500 rooms, and he flies as he pleases from his 14 planes. He has a separate floating palace, a summer palace in Otluk, a winter palace in Ahlat. He has every opportunity, but his soul is narrow, as if he were seven stories underground. On the other side, there's someone in a 12-square-meter cell. He's clear-headed, his head held high, his morale high. And from there, he's working on the CHP's party program, how we'll govern Türkiye. When the day comes, when he's free, there are no obstacles to his candidacy, and we nominate him, Ekrem İmamoğlu will be the presidential candidate, he will be the president.

Let's say we couldn't nominate a candidate that day, and a member of the party would run, but the fight wouldn't be let up in the slightest. And we will all go through this process together. Now, instead of President Ekrem, they're asking us for a presidential candidate. I've always said this in the past. Instead of President Ekrem, they ask, "Do you have a presidential candidate?" I say, "Yes." I say, "It's not me, it's you." Everyone sitting in this hall: you are my presidential candidate. As much as you are, it's me.

"THOSE WHO LOVE ME SHOULD FOLLOW ME"

"Mr. Tayyip trusts capital, the judiciary, the intelligence, the American Ambassador, Mr. Barack, the American President, Trump... Mr. Tayyip has risked everything to use everything but democracy and maintain his power. Faced with such a ruthless individual, we need those who are at least as daring as he is and who have decided to come to power in this country with even more courage.

From here, I am setting out for Istanbul, from the lands where Mehmed the Conqueror mounted his horse, saying, "Let those who love me follow me," and went to conquer Istanbul, to close an era and open another. Let those who love me follow me. Are we ready to march to power, to close an era and open another?

Source: NEWS CENTER