CHP's Aksaray rally | Özgür Özel: "I swear we will disband the Ak Toros gang."
Speaking before the rally, citizens told İmamoğlu that they had come for freedom and that they were not getting along:
CHP Chairman Özgür Özel greeted the people of Aksaray waiting in the square with an "Aksaray Poem." Recalling that they received 7.5 percent of the vote in Aksaray in the March 31, 2024 local elections, Özel said, "Aksaray is no one's fortress; it is the nation's fortress."
Aksaray is no one's stronghold. The nation has suffered greatly from the politics of polarization. We came to Aksaray not to polarize, but to embrace. Our politics has no "others" or "others." We do not push anyone away, we do not belittle anyone, and we do not look down on anyone. There are those who once set out as a "movement of the virtuous," but today they are imposing a dark order on Türkiye. Unfortunately, this dark order now divides society into classes and disregards the other, divides society into rich and poor, those close to or distant from the ruling power, sees only its cronies and vested interests, and turns its back on the citizens.
Özel continued his speech by saying, “We did not come here to hold a rally,” and explained the current state of the economy:
This square wasn't filled for nothing. We didn't come to Aksaray in the middle of summer to hold a rally. We came here to rebel against injustice, to witness the fire in the market, to protest the fire in Silivri. Today, an old lady came to me at the jewelry store. I asked, "What are you buying?" She said, "I'm buying 4,250 TL." Shame on the system that has left my old lady alone with this amount of money. From now on, we will all fight shoulder to shoulder in this great struggle. This system, which ranks second in the world in food inflation, which provides money for everyone but not for retirees or minimum wage earners, has broken a record 33% unemployment rate.
The CHP leader, also addressing TÜRK-İŞ's decision to strike, said, "The country won't be saved unless the workers are saved, the tradesmen won't be saved unless the farmers are saved. The police won't be saved unless the young people they pitted against each other are saved, and the civil servant won't be saved unless the police are saved. There's no salvation alone; it's either all together or none of us."
Following Özel's speech, "Türkiye has become a pyramid. The Palace sits at the top. Aksaray is being crushed at the bottom. 80% of Türkiye's population is left with only 10% of the country's wealth. I swear to God, the short straw will get what it deserves from the tall straw, those they despise will get what it deserves from the tall man, and Aksaray will get what it deserves from the Palace. We will take it back, one by one," chants of "Government resign" were chanted.
Özel, reminding that the nation struggled alone in all the crises experienced in Türkiye and asked, “Where is the state?”, said:
Forests are burning, people are carrying water in canisters. An earthquake occurs, people are trying to remove the debris with their own hands. Soldiers enter caves, and they die from methane gas. 301 miners lose their lives for nothing. A pandemic occurs, and people are helpless and hungry. You wonder where they are, who will run, who will come. A system that looks only at the president who appointed them, ignores the people, and doesn't act as ministers, and only sings the praises of the president is emerging. We will fight together against this dark system, this system that only cares about itself, and we will succeed together.
Özel said, "When the CHP comes to power, our president will be Ekrem İmamoğlu, who, like our first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, said, 'Farmers are the masters of the nation.' Bring Ekrem İmamoğlu in, and the minimum wage will be 7 quarter-gold coins, we promise."
Özel said, "These three or five pampered prosecutors have gone completely off the rails. They're threatening us with White Toros. I swear we will disband the White Toros gang."
Özel, reacting to the release of footage of 25 people detained in an operation targeting the IETT and ISFALT being taken to the courthouse in a single file, said, “Hey Erdoğan, you were also interrogated in Istanbul. The police didn't come to your door; you were tried, and you were tried without being held. Now, that Ak Toroslar gang is treating the IETT personnel you were driving like this. You've been reaping the rewards of that victimization ever since. Erdoğan, I'm calling out to you: Disband that gang, or we will disband that gang.”
Özel, once again reacting to AKP Chairman and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for remaining silent regarding the genocide in Gaza, said, “You criticize Netanyahu, calling him a murderer, but you cannot speak out against Trump, the instigator, out of fear.”
Trump wants to evacuate Gaza, Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi is being murdered in Palestine, my young female activist sister, Rümeysa Öztürk, is being held in prison for months in America, yet you don't say a word about Rümeysa Öztürk, or about the Madleen ship. Erdoğan, I don't question your love for Palestine, because you can't question something that doesn't exist. You don't have a sensitivity towards Palestine, you have a fear of Trump. You criticize Netanyahu, calling him a murderer, but out of fear, you can't speak out against Trump, the instigator.
He asked the crowd, “Will we send away this person without a diploma and make Ekrem İmamoğlu, who received his diploma with honor and dignity, the president?”
Özel, once again criticizing US Ambassador to Turkey and Special Representative for Syria Tom Barrack's remarks regarding the national system, said, "The man has lost his mind. He's talking about a tribe, what tribe? You don't know that the people who founded this country built a framework so that all sects and ethnicities could coexist in this country, called the republic system. This nation embraces this."
Özel, who pointed out that there were deficiencies and mistakes and emphasized that they would work hand in hand to address these shortcomings, said, “Let both the US Ambassador and Erdoğan hear it: we are cowardly if we let a nail be driven into the pillar of the republic.”
Addressing those criticizing the CHP's participation in the parliamentary commission on the peace process, Özel said, "If the CHP isn't present somewhere, if the CHP isn't on a commission, be afraid of that commission. If the CHP is present, the guarantee of the republic is there. Where we are, no one can touch the unity of this country. A constitution can't be made with those who don't abide by the constitution."
CHP Aksaray Provincial Chairman Bilal Özdemir read the message of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is imprisoned in the Marmara Prison in Silivri.
"Without justice, there can be no peace, no prosperity, no abundance," İmamoğlu said, adding, "I ask you: Do the scales of justice in the courts weigh everyone equally? Is there justice in the income you earn and the taxes you pay? Does everyone have equal access to quality education and healthcare? Does everyone benefit from state resources and opportunities under equal conditions? Unfortunately, none of these things are happening. Above all, we will establish a state structure built on the foundation of justice, where institutions and rules, not individual individuals, are paramount. The state will guarantee the rights and freedoms of everyone, not of this or that segment. The country will be governed not by the children of this or that party, but by the children of the nation. That is why we cry out from Aksaray: Justice first, freedom first, for everyone, everywhere... Turkey will grow, prosper, and become stronger with the power of justice and freedom. Never forget: the nation is great. Whatever the nation says, happens. These oppressions will end, this darkness will dissipate. Love will prevail, goodness will prevail. We will always stand tall. Always together, always shoulder to shoulder." "We will stand shoulder to shoulder and everything will be fine," he said.
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