16.10.2026 11:30
NEW: Party General Chairman Özgür Özel responded to the question about reconciliation with CHP in the TBB elections on the program on Now TV by saying, "We have no business with coup plotters." Özel said, "I am now at war, in a great struggle. We have risked both death and imprisonment"; he also reacted harshly to İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Cemil Tugay's switch to the AK Party and the funding crisis.
(ANKARA) -
YENİ Party Chairman Özgür Özel, upon being reminded of CHP's reconciliation efforts in the Union of Turkish Municipalities elections, stated that a very significant portion of the delegates who appear to be CHP members have their hearts with the YENİ Party, and that because of the distribution in metropolitan municipal councils, they did not invite these names to the YENİ Party, and used the following statement: “We have no business with coup plotters. We have no business with those who plan coups, nor with the pawns of coups, nor with what the coup plotters bring. We have left the normal ground behind; I am now at war, in a great struggle. We have risked both death and imprisonment; we are in a different struggle. Either we will save this country or we will lose it together.”
YENİ Party Chairman Özgür Özel, in the program he attended on Now TV, regarding transfers in politics, recalling that after then-AK Party MP Hakan Şükür resigned from the party, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, “If you are resigning from the party, you must also resign from your parliamentary seat,” recorded the following:
“Erdoğan will come out and invite a very young mayor he sees before him, saying ‘The doors are open, you can come to us.’ Or Murat Kurum will take everyone who comes to the ministry for citizens’ demands to the back for coffee and invite them to the AK Party. They will go, have them meet Erdoğan, and by giving assurances and offers, they bring them into the AK Party ranks. They treat this like a success story. Wasn’t it immorality to be elected with a party’s votes and then resign from that party? My mayors meet with Murat Kurum after getting permission from me; Murat Kurum offers transfers to my mayors. Imagine this being done to you. Is a married woman proposed to? What kind of propriety does it fit to walk up to a party’s mayor and offer a transfer? These are not right things. Regardless of which party they belong to, 78 percent of Turkey does not approve of these transfers. The person named Özlem Çerçioğlu cannot go out on the street in Aydın. Burcu Köksal cannot walk on the street in Afyon. People no longer have the face to look others in the eye.
HARSH WORDS FOR CEMİL TUGAY
You are doing politics in a political party; you have had to part ways with that political party; you have remained independent for a while; then you go to a political party with the same orientation—there are rules of courtesy for this too. But if you shout and cry that you are against the AK Party while asking for votes, and with those votes you join the AK Party, that is political pickpocketing. When I heard Cemil Tugay’s words in İzmir, my stomach turns, my hair stands on end. Let this government change, and I know with what motive he went there; if I do not hold him to account with the same motive and make him pay for it bitterly, may I be dishonored. The world’s most lying, slanderous team has appeared and says, ‘Do self-criticism.’ I did self-criticism. At the end of the day, we determined the candidate; that candidate was trembling all over. I held rallies in 25 of İzmir’s 30 districts. We won 29 of 31 municipalities. My effort and sweat are there. There is the patience İzmir residents showed us, the credit they gave us. That immoral person took that credit and sold it to the AK Party. He sold the people of İzmir to the AK Party, and the AK Party shamelessly accepted it. I am literally counting the days. First to change this government, then to make that Cemil Tugay pay for this bitterly, to break the record of local election history in İzmir, to have the candidates determined personally by the people of İzmir, to see the day when İzmir residents take that metropolitan municipality by slap and punch. We will break such a record in İzmir that Cemil Tugay will not be able to come to the handover; he will not be able to be a candidate against us in that election. Both legally and politically, he will face the greatest confrontation in world political history. I have never been this determined, this persistent, and made an issue my own issue in anything. First we will change the government, and that fleeing efe, whether from İzmir or Afyon, will look for a hole to hide in.
On one side are those held in Silivri, Çorlu, Kocaeli, those imprisoned as Özgür Özel’s best man; on the other side are those who until yesterday surrendered to the ones they had badmouthed and sold out the nation. This is no joke. Is this politics or competition?
I AM NOW AT WAR
Among the council members in the TBB, 250 members appear to be CHP. A very significant portion of them are staying there because we did not say ‘Come here,’ so that the metropolitan municipalities of Istanbul, Antalya, Muğla, Adana, and Mersin do not enter risk, and so that all evils do not embody in one place and a new pain, a new loss is not experienced. These nullity-mongers have appeared and are trying to bargain with us, imposing candidacies. You are not 250. The hearts of 200 of those 250 people are with the YENİ Party. We are the people who remained there because we said, ‘Wait a moment.’ Yesterday we won an election in the TBB with 131 delegates. Because we shut the door on the bargaining of those nullity-mongers, because we did not give countenance to the contact they established with the AK Party, we took the TBB fair and square. Tomorrow they may arrest 50 more people, renew the election, take it, but they will carve this shame into history. For us to come together with those who bargain with them, and with those who do these things, to sit down, to talk as if everything were normal. We have no business with coup plotters. We have no business with those who plan coups, nor with the pawns of coups, nor with what the coup plotters bring. We have left the normal ground behind; I am now at war, in a great struggle. We have risked both death and imprisonment; we are in a different struggle. Either we will save this country or we will lose it together. There is no second option. Let no one think they are serving as a mayor or municipal council member at any time. This is not a movie set; this is life itself. Here there is pain, here there is captivity, here there is death, there is threat, here there is everything. Here there is no surrender.”
FUND CRISIS: IF YOU ARE THE ONE AT THE HELM, RESIGN
When asked about the fund crisis, Özel said, “The one who appoints is AK Party, those appointed are AK Party, those who rob are AK Party, and a very large portion of those robbed are AK Party. We are nowhere in this business; we are only where the rights of the victims are sought. The nation’s parliament sent all of us there to both make laws and hold accounts. We are facing a government that smuggles the heads of the SPK and TMSF away from parliament. The AK Party has always fled at the most critical moments when it comes to coming to parliament and giving account; during the coup period they did not come to the research commission. In the December 17-25 period, four ministers were to be sent to the Supreme Tribunal upon the request that they give account before the parliamentary inquiry commission; Erdoğan halted the vote on the day it was to be held. He did not send those four ministers to give account. At the point we have reached today, there is a great fund swindle. Along with the collapse and victimization in the stock market, there is a victimization said to exceed 10 million people and a burden loaded onto the nation’s back. They are keeping those responsible for this away from parliament. There was a film called Organize İşler. They lay a madman in a coffin; while four people carry the coffin with difficulty, sincere Muslims put their shoulders to the coffin, and these tricksters leave the coffin to them and steal money from the pockets of those whose hands are raised. Those who go to carry the coffin have their money stolen, and they are left alone with the funeral. This is exactly the issue we are stuck on. They took the money from the poor citizen's pocket. Tayyip Erdoğan appointed all those who set up this scheme. They say, 'Our President has no knowledge of it.' If you are the one who set up this scheme, resign immediately; if you did not set it up, you approved the establishment of this scheme with the signatures you put, and if they ran this scheme right under your nose, then you no longer have the ability to govern this country; bring the ballot box, hand the job over to someone competent. Let the nation elect a president who will not let itself be robbed. If you are the one robbing, resign; if you were robbed and did not see it, let this nation elect a president who will not let itself be robbed" he said.
Özel noted the following:
"If there is a transaction over 100,000 liras, you enter MASAK's radar. Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya, while she and her husband took the money for 24 apartments in March and put it into this fund's account, or 2.1 billion TL in September. MASAK sees the anchovy, but these have caught a whale. Does MASAK not know Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya? The list is in their hands, 274 people at the very least. They do not disclose the list. Each of these has caught a whale; MASAK, which sees the anchovy, has not seen any of them—can such a thing be possible? That is why they do not come to account for it. "
KANAL ISTANBUL IS BEING BUILT IN A STREAM BED
Özel said, "We offer our condolences to the families of our three citizens we lost in the flood. Murat Kurum has come out and says, 'Let us look at the past, learn lessons, and from now on keep our distance from construction in stream beds.' Good morning, Mr. Kurum. The name of the politics that grants permission for construction in stream beds is the AK Party. Ayazağa was opened to zoning as a stream bed during the term of the AK Party Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. If anyone is to be held accountable, the AK Party should be. During the İBB term, we have fought against stream beds. All the work Mayor Ekrem has done over the past five years is against construction in stream beds. From time to time, these large projects have always been carried out with permits from Ankara, from the ministry headed by Mr. Kurum. We are not in any part of it. There are the AK Party's past Istanbul administrations and the Ministry of Urbanization. Last time, at Ayamama stream where 31 people lost their lives, we said we would learn lessons; the same mistakes were made. You say, let us learn lessons. Where is Sazlıbosna? Despite our objections, you are drying up a dam in Sazlıbosna, which you call Kanal Istanbul, and building houses in its place. The place you call a dam is where all the streams collect. Its ground is also problematic, and construction there is also problematic. Murat Kurum, who says we should not build in stream beds, the project we call Kanal Istanbul is being built in a stream bed. All responsibility lies with Murat Kurum. İmamoğlu, who is trying to save Istanbul from settlements in stream beds, is inside. The AK Party proposed to Istanbulites that Murat Kurum should govern Istanbul. It was said that İmamoğlu would govern by a margin of over 1 million. Murat Kurum wants to take Istanbul, which he could not win in the election, by intervening in Istanbul, working with the Ministry of Justice for the transfer of municipalities in Istanbul, and using judicial games and the transfer power of the ministry" he said.
REACTION TO TRUSTEE APPOINTMENT TO HALK TV
Özel noted the following regarding the appointment of a trustee to Halk TV:
"Ekrem İmamoğlu is making his defense. They muted Halk TV three hours before the defense began, so that this defense would not be heard. Halk TV, one of the channels that most amplified the voices of the fund victims, has been silenced. Our party, which is marching to power, is being de-candidate-ized, de-institutionalized, and tried to be de-leaderized through attacks on us. What was done to Halk TV is to mute the opposition's voice and an effort to get rid of a broadcasting channel that bothers them as they head to future elections. None of this is separate from the organized evil we are in today. All of it is the sock that Tayyip Erdoğan's palace order is trying to knit onto this country's head. The issue is between Erdoğan and the nation. They are teaching a lesson to the nation, which says 'You will go' to the one who says 'I came by election but I will not go.' The nation will not give the ballot box, the most important achievement of the republic, Atatürk's trust, to anyone. It will first push away the hands reaching for the ballot box; if they are still reaching, it will break them, it will sweep them away, but it will not leave that ballot box to anyone. This is my belief. I invite all our nation to pursue this matter with courage and patience, never to surrender, never to fall into despair. We are resisting with great determination because what we are defending is the republic itself. Clinging with all four hands to the trust of the anti-imperialist Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, we will save the ballot box, democracy, and the republic in these countries. We have no republic to hand over to Trump, to Barrack, or to Erdoğan, and no ballot box to sacrifice. We will succeed; in the end, the nation will win. "
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