18.03.2026 23:52
Speaking at a rally organized by his party in Saraçhane to mark the first anniversary of Ekrem İmamoğlu's arrest, who was suspended from his position due to a corruption investigation against the İBB, CHP Chairman Özgür Özel stated, "March 19 was made so that the people do not decide who will govern this country. The people should pay their taxes, go to the army, pay traffic fines, but they should not be able to change the government with their own will." Özel also mentioned that they have socialized the struggle to protect the ballot box and politics.
The 99th rally of the CHP's "Defending the Will of the Nation" was held in Saraçhane, where the İBB building is located, due to the first anniversary of Ekrem İmamoğlu's detention following the corruption operation against the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB).
"MARCH 19 WAS MADE SO THAT THE NATION DOES NOT DECIDE WHO WILL GOVERN THIS COUNTRY"
Addressing the crowd that attended the rally, CHP Chairman Özgür Özel stated: "They say human memory is afflicted with forgetfulness. Everything started in November 2023. A few months earlier, our party, which had just come out of a major electoral defeat, managed to rise again with the call of the youth to 'get up,' with young and female cadres, achieving a significant change while hopes were low, heads were down, and morale was poor. Just four months later, in the elections held, the AK Party was defeated for the first time in its history. CHP became the leading party in Turkey after 47 years. We did not attribute this victory to ourselves or our party; we saw it as a success of democrats, a success of those standing side by side, of those who are united. Erdoğan knew he could not stop this trend. He did not trust either his party or its youth and women's branches, which is why he attempted an impossible task. He sent someone who had previously dragged a politician through courts, who had slaughtered justice, and then rewarded him by making him a deputy minister, this time as the chief prosecutor of Istanbul. That useful apparatus immediately began its duty. The gang established by this name turned into an AK Toroslar gang involved in all kinds of dirty work. A coup plan was executed step by step. First, on October 30, our mayor of Esenyurt, Ahmet Özer, was taken, and a trustee was appointed to Turkey's largest district. Ahmet Özer spent exactly 377 days in prison and came out with his head held high. Then operations were carried out in Beşiktaş and Beykoz. On March 18, Ekrem President's 31-year diploma was revoked. On March 19, an attempt was made to carry out a civil coup in the country, an attempt at a coup. The mayors elected by the people, bureaucrats, and our presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu were detained. That coup has been ongoing for exactly 365 days. The nation has been resisting the coup for 365 days. March 19 is an attempt to tear up the contract between the state and the nation. March 19 was made so that the nation does not decide who will govern this country. It was made so that the nation pays taxes, goes to the army, pays traffic fines, but cannot change the government with its own will. The struggle we have been fighting for a year is not a party struggle; it is a struggle for democracy as a front.
"WE ARE SOCIALIZING THE STRUGGLE TO PROTECT POLITICS AND THE BALLOT"
We democrats know the importance of the ballot. In recent weeks, the AK Party's Ministry of Interior made a regulation. They implemented a new application that fines modified vehicles. An unexpected reaction arose from the public. Until now, those who voted for the People's Alliance, those who voted for the AK Party, started to write on social media that they would see each other at the ballot box. March 19 is against the will of the nation to say we will see each other at the ballot box, whether it is someone working in an industrial site who voted for the AK Party, trying to modify their dream vehicle a little more to their liking, wanting to settle accounts at the ballot box when they see fines double, or whether it is the youth gathered at Istanbul University, taking ownership of their future. This is a system where the nation is sovereign, where the nation has the sole say, where it is not the autocrats but the elected ones who govern, where the nation brings to power what it wants and sends away what it does not want, a system that has created, saved, and brought this country to these days. For this reason, we are socializing the struggle to protect politics and the ballot against those who want to eliminate the ballot. If a handful of coup plotters establish a system according to themselves, we are socializing this struggle to protect politics and the ballot against these schemers who do not want to look anyone in the face again. This understanding, which is spreading to industrial sites, which is being discussed in villages and fields, which is coming up in worker shuttles, saying 'My brother is eating my rights, I will take my rights, if I don't, I will oppose, I will change what I do not want,' is our greatest assurance to repel this coup. This square is responsible not only for itself but also for growing this struggle. Are we ready to grow this struggle step by step and walk to power together?
"REPELLING THE COUP IS THE DUTY OF ALL DEMOCRATS"
Repelling this coup is the duty of all democrats. Whoever has the seal is Süleyman. Our struggle is to ensure that a handful of people do not become Süleyman; our struggle is the struggle for the seal, the judgment to remain with the nation. Everyone should account for this. Are we ready to grow this struggle wave by wave from now on? Here is our mayor of Esenyurt, Ahmet Özer, here is the elected president of Adana, Zeydan Karalar, among us. We have never forgotten our brothers, friends, and heroes in prison; we have never left them alone, and we will not."