07.04.2026 15:00
In a statement made in the party group, CHP leader Özgür Özel said about the arrested Bursa Metropolitan Mayor Mustafa Bozbey, "Despite the pressures that come every 15 days, Mustafa Bozbey said, 'I am a member of CHP, I have no faults, I will not bow to blackmail,' and he was arrested for Bursa. Just as we are disgusted by those who steal Aydın's will, we are equally proud of Mustafa Bozbey."
In the evaluations made at the CHP group meeting in the Turkish Grand National Assembly, CHP Chairman Özgür Özel supported Bursa Metropolitan Mayor Mustafa Bozbey, who was arrested on the charge of "establishing and managing an organization for the purpose of committing a crime and receiving bribes."
In his statement regarding the issue, Özel said, "Despite the pressures that come every 15 days, Mustafa Bozbey said, 'I am a CHP member, I have no faults, I will not bow to blackmail,' and he was arrested for Bursa. Just as we are disgusted by those who steal Aydın's will, we are equally proud of Mustafa Bozbey," he stated.
Highlights from Özel's statements;
"We are in the parliament after two weeks. Last week, we were supposed to be in Kosovo to support our national team, accompanying the national team's journey to the World Cup, at the invitations of both Kosovo Prime Minister, our political relative Albin Kurti, and the President of the Turkish Football Federation. We woke up with this intention. We did not have a group meeting.
OPERATION AGAINST BURSA METROPOLITAN
However, we woke up to those who want to poison the anniversary of March 31, the greatest local election victory in the history of the Republican People's Party, and even in the history of democracy in the Republic of Turkey, which was two years ago. We woke up to a new political coup against Bursa's will, by those who could not take Bursa at the ballot box established two years ago and now want to take it with the judge's gavel and the prosecutor's robe.
They will collapse the people's will with the authority that Bursa did not grant at the municipal council meeting to be held tomorrow, taking advantage of the opportunism in Bursa. They will want to bring a puppet instead of the mayor elected by one in two people and continue with waste and rent. From now on, the people of Bursa will speak at the first ballot they catch.
"WE HAVE NO EXCUSE FOR WORKING"
We are in a period of intense work and intense resistance. We have not taken a step back against the attacks. But we also have no excuse for work, such as 'there are so many attacks, we cannot work, we cannot do it.'
Our mayors continue to work despite all those shocks, the 40% cut in funds, and the payments of the debts incurred by the previous AKP to the Social Security Institution and the tax office with interest. We were in Çanakkale, we were in Kuşadası, we were in Bursa, and we were in Kütahya.
Four. That is, our provinces of Çanakkale, Bursa, and Kütahya, and our district of Kuşadası were managed by CHP mayors. I spoke with some while they were under custody, and some while they were arrested. Two were in office, Çanakkale and Kütahya. I saw what they did, and we explained it in detail. We asked the square, when the names of the mayors and their services come up, the squares jump up and down.
IBB CASE: THEY COULDN'T PROVE 56 KURUSH
I will touch on this shortly. We inaugurated very important services in İzmir, Manisa, and Bursa. We laid the foundations for new investments. Before moving on to the busy agenda of this week in my speech today, I want to start by taking a brief look at the first period of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality trial, where the decision for the release of 18 innocent people was finally made with the last interim decision.
It has been exactly 384 days since the March 19 coup. For the sake of greed, we are experiencing a process that no one has won and 86 million have lost for 384 days. For 384 days, the peace and prosperity of the nation have been sacrificed. We waited 8 months for the indictment, and it came out after 8 months. The trials started after a year, and we are still at the 17th session.
The first concrete reality that emerged is this: The pool media and the mainstream media manipulated by false information until the trial began on March 19 last year, and even until the indictment came out, we see that 90% of what was said in the hall, what was said, what character assassination and what slander was made, is not even in the indictment. In terms of the place it held in the agenda, TRT started the first morning with "560 billion corruption." We learned that even if the IBB had not distributed any salaries, had not supplied any water, had not laid any asphalt, and had not helped any poor people, the total would already be 450 billion. You will distribute salaries to 90,000 people. You will provide services in all 39 districts of Istanbul. You will make infrastructure investments of 4-5 billion lira in each district, and it will be visibly noticeable, for example, Üsküdar will no longer be flooded, cars will not float on viaducts, and streams will not overflow. Then, more than the total of these funds is corruption.
The indictment did not even come close. They said euros and dollars were stuffed under the pavements in IBB. Not a single cent came out, nor was it even claimed. The images they claimed disappeared, and the sound recordings they mentioned became inaudible. These questions were asked, and they said, "the ones who said it, I heard it that way too, I was misled, we did it with the prosecutor's information."
"ERDOĞAN'S MISTAKE AND DECEPTION HAS BEEN REVEALED"
This hesitation, that is, the confidence we said we are waiting to 'judge, not to be judged' did not go to waste. Because Erdoğan, who believes in the prosecutor, said, 'the indictment will come out in less than a month,' it came out after 8 months. 'Then they will not be able to go out on the street, they will not be able to look each other in the face,' he said, but when the indictment came out after 8 months, we had been on the street for 8 months. On top of that, we have been on the street for another 4 months. We are going for 103 actions. In all 39 districts of Istanbul, looking into the eyes of the voters. In all the action meetings we held across Turkey, in provincial rallies, looking into the eyes of the people. Not just in the strongholds of the CHP, the fortress work is over, we spoke looking into the eyes in Yozgat, Konya, Kayseri. Honestly, in the end, it turned out that our confidence was correct, and Erdoğan was mistaken, I won't say misled, but it was revealed that he misled. One person he misled was Mr. Bahçeli. When Mr. Bahçeli saw such strong claims, we said 'there is no such thing,' he trusted that prosecutor, he trusted Erdoğan. We said, 'we request a live broadcast,' he said, 'let it be done.' They asked Erdoğan, he also trusted the prosecutor, he said, 'it is appropriate.' The trial began, and forget about live broadcasting, they even squeeze journalists into a corner like a matchbox in the back. Families are in another place. God forbid, let nothing be heard about what is happening inside! Do you know what is happening? Inside, there is a human dimension to the job; on the day he was taken into custody and arrested, the innocent bureaucrats of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality hear their child saying 'dad' while being entrusted to their mother's womb.
Do you know what is happening? They call it a gang, and women from all over Turkey come together, calling it an organization, and they get to know each other there. They hug each other. What is described as Turkey's largest crime organization turned out to be a group of professionally hired individuals who work based on merit and professionalism, many of whom have never even met face to face and do not know each other. There is something like this, for example, you say merit, was it yesterday or the day before? We look at it, if these were broadcast, how nice it would be! For example, they are now asking Seyfullah Demirel, the Head of the Road Maintenance Department of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality: 'When hiring, was there any discussion about how Ekrem İmamoğlu would convey his instructions or some instructions regarding the way you would work?' He says, 'Sir, Ekrem Bey has only one instruction,' he said when he hired me.
'What is that?' he says. 'I was the mayor of Beylikdüzü, we struggled in the snow and ice, I asked İBB for salt. They didn't give it because you are not from our party. Look, you are coming to the same position, you are giving salt to everyone, regardless of whether they are from the AK Party or CHP, as much as they want,' he says, this is his only instruction. 'I couldn't fulfill that either, I gave salt as much as needed, not as much as they wanted, but I gave it to everyone,' he says. 'I didn't let President Ekrem's word fall to the ground,' he says.
MURAT KAPKİ'S STATEMENTS: THE PIECES OF THE PUZZLE ARE COMING TOGETHER
He says, for example, Mr. Kapkı, 'I was deceived by the prosecutor's release commitment.' I mean, he says; 'This statement is not a true statement. I couldn't tell the truth. He said to me, if you say this, I will release you, I was deceived by the release commitment. I signed this indictment, I signed this statement for that reason. Now I am withdrawing it,' he says.
For example, we were supposed to hear something in those trials, supposedly about these. 'Ekrem İmamoğlu is a criminal organization, he said give this tender to this, give that tender to that,' and so on. We don't hear these; we see the honorable struggles of the women whom the prosecutor threatened by saying, 'If you want to reunite with your child, you will sign this, otherwise you will be in one corner of Anatolia.' We also see some confessors who cannot look someone in the eye, some who have backed down, and some who are waiting for their turn to back down. But we see that almost all of them are piecing together the puzzle of how this issue is a setup.
That's why I say this much: If there is anyone who has the slightest doubt about this matter, they should go to court or at least watch as much as the journalists reporting on the court can provide. Especially political parties. Thank you, many opposition parties come and watch. All political parties should come. In fact, if there is any self-confidence from the AK Party. For years in the past, they said there was a coup case against the state, we went and listened, we were the first to write that it was a setup. For example, the setup in the expression that a setup was made against our national army has been placed in history by the definition of the 'Balyoz Setup' by the Republican People's Party Prison Commission. Erdoğan later came and said, 'I was deceived too,' and said, 'They set up a trap for the national army.'
"THOSE WHO HAVE THE COURAGE TO SEEK THE TRUTH ARE BEING SOUGHT"
In the AK Party, a group of deputies from the MHP. It is open to the deputies, they should go and watch. They should tell what they see and hear first to their conscience, then to their spouse, friends, and party. But they can't, they are unable to do it. Why can't they do it? As the Republican People's Party, for example, when we followed the military espionage, the İzmir military espionage case; Muharrem Işık, Veli Ağbaba, I, Nurettin Demir came and said to our party: There is a big setup. Everyone we told listened with open ears. They gave me 20 minutes to speak, I went out and told the whole assembly. I said; the personal honor of the honorable officers of the army is being stained with prostitution, their professional honor is being stained with espionage. Two years after these words, these sentences were quoted and used in the trial of the judges and prosecutors who set up this setup and set up this trap against the national army.
The issue was that clear. If you are the representative of the people, you will stand in the right place in history. We didn't go there to exonerate the guilty; we went there to seek the truth. Now, AK Party and MHP deputies who have the courage to seek the truth are being sought, friends. AK Party and MHP members who will go there to watch and then tell this first to their conscience, then to their friends and voters are being sought. It is hard to find. Groups are formed accordingly, group disciplines are established, and so on. But there is now a great rupture here.
"BECAUSE WE DIDN'T LET KANAL ISTANBUL BE BUILT."
What is the reason for such oppression, such hatred, such accumulation of resentment? What is the reason? Is it because we didn't let Kanal Istanbul be built in Istanbul or because 'You have established a great waste regime for years, the AK Party members said enough' and we have gone from Beylikdüzü, which we managed well, to İBB, or could it be the punishment for defeating you by a margin in the canceled elections?
Can water flow without water? How can a trial be conducted by leaving the great Republic of Turkey's trial in Silivri without water? This court is there every day, not just one day. Grit your teeth, go endure, right? This court happens every day, friends go four days a week. "