09.04.2025 13:11
In his speech at the AK Party Group Meeting, President Erdoğan responded to Özgür Özel's remarks about "coup plotters." Erdoğan said, "I recommend the Chairman of the CHP to read his own history well. If he has a bit of courage, I suggest he confront his dirty past that has turned to tar. Since 1950, you have been relying on coups. CHP means coup, and coup means CHP."
CHP Chairman Özgür Özel stated in his speech at the 21st Extraordinary Congress, "Today, Turkey is governed by a junta that fears the election, its opponent, and the nation." While Özel's words drew the government's reaction, President Erdoğan also filed a criminal complaint against Özel for "insulting the President" with the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. Additionally, Erdoğan filed a lawsuit for 500,000 TL in damages against CHP leader Özel due to his "junta" remarks.
Following these developments, Erdoğan also responded to these remarks at the AK Party group meeting. Erdoğan said, "Since 1950, you have been hoping for help from juntas. CHP means junta, and junta means CHP."
HE GAVE EXAMPLES FROM THE PAST
Erdoğan continued his statements as follows:
In fact, it is not worth responding, but let the youth know these things. Young people should learn the history of the CHP. What does Mr. Özgür say? He says the CHP, which could continue as a single party if it wanted, is the party that introduced the country to democratic elections. You have granted a favor. Then, going even further, he accuses us of being junta supporters.
Now, look, dear brothers and sisters, beloved youth, I am drawing attention to this especially for you. The second Chairman of the CHP, as you know, is İsmet İnönü. He loved his seat very much. He left his seat in the CHP in 1972, at the age of 88, not by choice, but because he lost to Bülent Ecevit. In the first multi-party political experiment in 1930, his seat was so shaky that he could only endure three months in the Free Republican Party before he had that party closed down. In 1946, not by his own will, not voluntarily, I emphasize this, he was forced to transition to a multi-party life due to intense international pressures. He had no choice. There was no other way. Now they arrogantly present that necessity as if it were a favor to the nation.
In the first transparent election in Turkey in 1950, the CHP was removed from power and has not been able to come to power alone since that day. So what did the CHP do when it could not come to power, when it could not emerge from the ballot box? It laid the foundations for the May 27 junta. The CHP disrupted the country's balance so much that there were junta attempts in 1961, 62, 63, 69, and 1971. They applauded the March 12 memorandum, paved the way for the December 27, 1979 memorandum and the September 12 junta, openly applauded the February 28 coup, and stood behind the April 27 declaration that we tore up and threw in the trash. They took to the streets and protested, saying, "The army is on duty!" They became actors in the December 17-25 coup attempt and the Gezi uprising. On July 15, they fled from the tanks and enjoyed their coffee in front of the television.
They laid the foundations for every coup, every coup attempt, every memorandum, and every junta in Turkey, wrote the invitations, stood behind them, applauded, and patted the backs of the coup plotters.
"CHP MEANS JUNTA"
I advise the Chairman of the CHP to read his own history well. I suggest that the Chairman of the CHP, if he has a bit of courage, confront his dirty past, which has turned into tar with the stains of tutelage. Mr. Özel, you have been absent from the ballot box since 1950. The nation does not grant you authority, and you have been hoping for help from juntas since 1950. The equation is quite simple: CHP means junta. Junta means CHP.
The CHP has not only written the book on corruption but also on coup-making in this country. Look, I express it clearly and unequivocally: If it weren't for the independent judiciary they insult and threaten, the CHP would currently be a prisoner of the junta administration that emerged from within itself. You should lie down and pray to the judiciary that saved you from the junta that emerged from within yourselves.