10.10.2026 12:40
New party leader Özgür Özel reacted harshly to Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's statements regarding the candidacy of Cemil Tugay, Mayor of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality. Özel, arguing that he was not warned about any mayor during the handover ceremony, denied Kılıçdaroğlu's claims. Özel said, 'I have never heard a lie that made me feel this ashamed in my life.'
Answering questions from members of the press after the Ankara Train Station Massacre commemoration, YENİ Party General Chairman Özgür Özel responded to the claims by CHP General Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu regarding İzmir and the candidate selection processes. Stating that he received what was said with shame, Özel expressed that the claims were completely untrue.
'HE USED TO SAY KARTAL, NOW HE SAYS KARŞIYAKA'
Rejecting the claim that Kılıçdaroğlu warned him about certain names at the handover ceremony, Özel drew attention to the fact that the statements constantly changed. Stating that Kılıçdaroğlu had previously made similar claims about Kartal Municipality, but today changed his rhetoric to Karşıyaka, Özel emphasized that no mayor's name was mentioned during the handover and spoke as follows:
'If he says, On the day of the handover I told him about Karşıyaka Municipality's relationship with the Five-Man Gang, I said don't make him a candidate, then who was the General Chairman one day before the handover? You. If you knew this, why didn't you expel the Karşıyaka Mayor, why didn't you refer him to discipline, why didn't you do what was necessary, why did you make him a trouble for us then? You made him Karşıyaka Mayor. No mayor's name was mentioned at the handover.
'AS A 1 PERCENT, 2 PERCENT PARTY, YOU WILL NOT STOOP TO SUCH THINGS'
Stating that when he asked Kılıçdaroğlu about the claims leaked to the press in the past, he said he had no knowledge of them, Özel criticized that today the same gossip was being brought up by Kılıçdaroğlu. In his statement, Özel used the following expressions:
Today he has come out, and by also provoking the gossip that was served to the trolls back then, by turning Kartal into Karşıyaka, supposedly [he will do something] to us on the İzmir issue—you saw the poll in İzmir. CHP is at 1 percent, the YENİ Party has soared. Here he supposedly will discredit us in İzmir, get us into arguments, do who knows what. There is no such thing, friends. I was ashamed to hear and read this much. 'I said this, I said that, I said who knows what.' When the Urban Consensus was criminalized, he said there were 10 Urban Consensus municipal council members. It is all a lie. 'I said these things.' All a lie. 'I said those things.' All a lie. A little seriousness. I mean, since you entered the service of the AK Party judiciary, you did not digest an election you lost. (...) As a 1 percent, 2 percent party, you will not stoop to such things.
'I HAVE NEVER HEARD A LIE THAT MADE ME THIS ASHAMED'
Denying the claims that the polls were not seen and stating that all data was in the party records and cloud system, Özel recalled the votes in the Party Council and concluded his speech as follows:
The polls are out there, the invoices the party paid to polling companies are in the accounts. All PM members know. (...) Is there anyone who voted against Cemil Tugay? All their votes are in the Party Council. I have a vote too, they have a vote too. But let me say this much. They are in such a state now that I would not have taken them as an interlocutor, but at the level of General Chairman, such a falsehood contrary to reality—coming out on a television channel and now putting into his mouth the issues about which, when I asked him in the past, he said 'I have no knowledge. The trolls are doing it, not me,' and adding Karşıyaka to it as well—I truly met with shame. I am complaining to our nation. You were the General Chairman one day before the handover. You learned that the Karşıyaka Mayor was engaged in corruption with the five-man gang, and you knew in your own term in the past, and you did not do what was necessary. Then you told me at the handover, 'Don't make him Karşıyaka Mayor.' I have never heard a lie that made me this ashamed in my life.
WHAT HAD KILIÇDAROĞLU SAID?
CHP General Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, in a statement after İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Cemil Tugay joined the AK Party, criticized Özgür Özel for nominating Tugay in the 2024 local elections.
Kılıçdaroğlu said, 'I said that he should not nominate Cemil Tugay as mayor candidate. I also explained why he should not nominate him. I conveyed to Mr. Özgür that he gained millions of liras in advantage from a land sale, provided an advantage to one of the 'five-man gangs' companies, and that he was not a healthy, consistent person.'
Stating that he had also expressed similar assessments for other candidates, Kılıçdaroğlu reminded that despite this, Tugay was nominated for İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayorship.
Kılıçdaroğlu also criticized Tugay's municipal performance in Karşıyaka and argued that after becoming metropolitan municipality mayor, he could not provide sufficient service to İzmir.