NEW Party Chairman Özgür Özel participated in his party's Yozgat Provincial Presidency primary election. Özel made a speech to the party members here.
Referring to the huge 'fund' profiteering that was revealed in the capital markets, Özel pointed out that the magnitude of the incident caused greater damage than the February 6 earthquakes and said, "Don't look for responsibility here or there. The responsible one is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Why is he responsible? First, he is the one who appoints the rulers there one by one. Neither my signature nor Devlet Bahçeli's nor the Chairman of any party has his signature under it. He all has his signature under it."
Özel also explained the point reached in his party's organizational work by saying, "I would like to give good news here that my friends are working on digital democratic participation. The party now has 770 thousand members on your mobile phones, we are heading towards 1 million, God willing. We are in an understanding where we will consult you on critical decisions, get your opinion, say 'We are very stuck. Gather all the members in all districts this weekend, make a decision on this issue' and walk directly with you."
Özel's full statements are as follows:
“DID YOU HEAR THAT AK PARTY ASKED THE MEMBER FOR THE PROVINCIAL - DISTRICT PRESIDENT?”
"Today is important for our party, and when the day comes, we are taking a very valuable and irreversible step together for Turkish politics. Before the NEW Party was established, when we asked our members, 'What should be changed in our statute?' or 'What is needed for this party to integrate with its members and do more effective politics?', they would always complain about the delegate system and demand that the members have a direct say. However, the answer was very shorthanded by saying 'The Law on Political Parties does not allow this' and all of us Let's not be unfair to ourselves, there was a system where we elected our delegates as much as possible in the neighborhoods, in the metropolitan cities where we set up ballot boxes, but no one was happy with the results. For example, I would like to say this to the members of the AK Party in Yozgat, the members of the MHP, and the members of other parties in Turkey where my voice reached. Have you heard that the Justice and Development Party asked that member to be the provincial chairman, district chairman, chairman? The delegate procedures required by the Parties Law are written by hand. Then, the district presidents and provincial presidents, whose number is reduced to one, are determined in the halls by the delegates, whose determination is unknown, and those congresses are completed within minutes. We tried to make it more democratic, but there were many complaints. When the NEW Party was established, they asked us, 'What will be new in the NEW Party?' We said, 'It will be brand new from top to bottom.' "There is no senior or junior member of the party. We are all new, our spirit is new, our path is new, our goal is clear, we are starting a brand new walk together on the path to power."
“THEY WILL ATTEND THE BALLOTS IN 830 DISTRICTS”
"I gave good news at the first group meeting. I said, 'Although the Law on Political Parties does not directly allow it, we will take this job to a completely different level, perhaps by getting a little tired and working a little more." Of course, for example, the official congress of Yozgat will be held next week and the delegates required by the Political Parties Law will vote duly in this hall. But we will directly determine who will be the provincial president in that hall, with a primary election we will hold with all our members a week ago. There will be a democratic race there and this party will have the right to vote. The member will have the say, the authority and the decision. The member will elect the district president, the chairman will be elected. 15 days ago, I got off the plane, the first district I set foot in Izmir, I went to the district congress; at the end of the race, one won, the other did not. Because the member does not allow such things anymore, the one got more votes, but then the NEW Party won in Bornova and Manisa. I witnessed the enthusiasm of our members by attending the district congresses in my own district, the next day in Balıkesir, and in Istanbul in the evening. Now this week, meetings are being held all over Turkey for the provincial chairmanship elections, where the members of over 830 districts come and listen to the candidates. Tomorrow, everyone will go to their district, those who could not come here will come to the polls to be held in their district, and they will determine the provincial chairmanships with the votes they cast. I wanted to take this historic first step with you from Yozgat. “Good luck and good luck to all of you.”
“YOZGAT STANDED STRONG BY US”
"Today, we are taking the first step together in Yozgat of the new policy that we have put before our nation, that is, the new understanding of politics in which the member is the real owner of the say, authority and decision. As you know, our party was not established under normal circumstances, happily and spontaneously. The founding party of Turkey and the first party on the day Turkey was founded, the first party of the last elections, the first party of the last elections after 47 years, the party of the last elections that defeated the AK Party for the first time since its establishment, our party; unfortunately, it is our party appointed by the government." Some members of the judiciary, who are not based on any rules or laws, and all parties accept that, with a ridiculous decision that has never happened and will never happen in the political history of Turkey, which would have destroyed the whole system, the elected ones were sent away and replaced by those who were not elected, those who did not win, those who were used to defeat. First of all, we started a great struggle for our party. Yozgat, which has been treated unfairly in Turkey from time to time due to its ratio and number of members, but whose potential I know, whose warmth I know, and whose efforts I know, has stood firm with us, shoulder to shoulder, against the AK Party's coup attempt by a political party, first by removing its presidential candidate, and then by trying to deinstitutionalize the party. "so you are."
“WE GROWED THE NEW PARTY WITH OUR NATION IN THE SQUARE”
"This being the case, we struggled for two months. However, we realized that we had great determination, but they had no plan of evil to end. First, the people were saying 'Don't give this party to anyone' on the streets, then with every step we took, they started to say, 'Establish a new one, establish a new party. Walk, we are behind you.' With the compass in the hands of the people, we walked in the direction they showed, on the path they pointed out. Maybe we couldn't find a new path, but we opened a brand new one. We founded the NEW Party together with you, whose instructions were given by the nation, named by the nation in the squares, whose budget was formed by the nation, and which we have grown together with our nation, street by street, square by square. Thank you all, thank you for your efforts, thank you. Here in Yozgat, after the March 19 coup, do not think that 'Sir, Turkey is standing. Kadıköy is standing, Avcılar is standing, Maltepe Square is standing, İzmir Gündoğdu is standing, Samsun İlkadım is standing. For those wondering: 'What is Anatolia like?', we held the biggest rally in the history of Yozgat, where we filled the beginning, end, corner and corner of the square that some people could not fill, and we waved our caps to all the farmers in Turkey with our photo on it. Of course, we would do the opening and the beginning from Yozgat. Everyone should know that Yozgat is no one's castle anymore. Yozgat is the castle of new politics.”
“YOU HAVE THE WORD, YOU HAVE THE AUTHORITY, YOU HAVE THE DECISION”
"This excitement, this struggle, this determination has brought 2 thousand 912 members to the NEW Party in Yozgat within two months since the day it was founded. Today, I am sitting between our 2 thousand 912 members and two candidates who aspire to be the provincial chairman of the NEW Party in the new period. On one side of me is our President Abdullah Yaşar. Both our mayor of Osmanpaşa for two terms in the past, and the last 10 years together, when I was the Group Deputy Chairman of our party and in the last three years as the Chairman, he was the Provincial Chairman On the other side, I have my brother Berkay Apsalmış, who was our candidate for Sarıkaya Mayor last term and is one of the young people with whom we walked together in the struggle of the NEW Party, who did not hesitate for a minute when coming from our party. If you ask me, Abdullah, whose name I mentioned at the first meeting the morning after the election, is there for me. "Whatever Ferdi Zeyrek is, Abdullah is our companion from that day on. On the other hand, we have a brilliant 32-year-old political scientist. What a difficult decision, what to do? One person cannot make the right decisions, one person can make a mistake, but 2 thousand 912 people cannot make the wrong decision."
“NOTHING IS 'PLAYED' IN SUCH SOLIDARITY”
"Let me have a message from here, from Yozgat, to the whole of Turkey. Competitive elections are being held in many provinces. In Ankara, there are five candidates, two women and three men. In Izmir, the Aziz Mayor, the legendary Metropolitan Mayor, came to the NEW Party, said 'I am also in this period' and became a candidate for the provincial presidency. They are competing with the Founding President Çağatay President. Another race in another place. I must say clearly from here, 'Who is the Chairman pointing out, who is the party pointing out?' Friends, the most important of our party. Its feature is sincerity, faith in each other, trust. Until I came here, we hugged each other tighter than hugging our relatives. As NEW Party members, we are the ones who hug each other, kiss each other, and do not want to let go when they find each other. That's why we will say, 'Come and become a member of the party. It's your decision.' We will even say, 'Give up your credit card, the dues will be withdrawn every month, because who will keep the party alive?' There were more than 700 minibuses, buses and minibuses. We don't have one now. There is only one bus of the headquarters. All of them are rented. But all of them are yours. People come and donate two bowls of the milk milked from the cow to the party. When I asked the President, "How is the party going in Yozgat?" he said, "I have been in this business for years. Nobody comes empty-handed. He comes with a pack of tea, as if he were coming to a wedding house, to a house of condolence, to a poor man's house, to a newlywed's house." "At least he comes to this party with a cube of sugar. This party is not a good thing," he said. "Now, in a party that has been formed under these conditions, with a budget created under these conditions, with such solidarity, nothing is 'pretend'. We pretend to be racing and point to so-and-so. We say that there is democracy, but in fact the Chairman makes the decision and the people come and shake their heads." This is all the old politics, the new understanding that the NEW Party has established, the one who gives the authority to you. It is an understanding that believes and whose only assurance is you. Your decision is my decision.”
“WE SAID, 'WE WILL CHANGE OURSELVES FIRST'”
"My dear fellow travelers, it has been talked about that politics needs to change in Turkey for years. Maybe names change, signs change, MPs and Ministers change, but the way of doing politics does not change. When the way of doing politics does not change, the fate of the country does not change. Then they turn around and ask, 'Why do people not trust the political institution?'. Why should they trust it? Why should a person who is only remembered when asking for votes and left outside the door when making a decision trust politics and politicians? Here is the sincerity, belief and reality I just said, especially the NEW Party and politics in Turkey. It is a step we took with the belief in the institution, and indirectly, in the first step, to strengthen the belief in democracy. That's why we decided from the very first day. We said, 'We will change first. If we promise democracy to the country, we will establish it in our own home' and we started. As I just stated, by consulting directly with the members at all levels, I would like to give good news that they are working on digital democratic participation. The party now has 770 thousand members on your mobile phones. With God's permission, we have an understanding where we will consult you on critical decisions, we will say, 'We are very stuck, gather all the members in all districts and make a decision on this issue,' and we will walk directly with you. The most important step of this is the neighborhood council in all possible neighborhoods, if possible. I know that many neighborhoods of Yozgat have a population problem, a membership problem, but a district council is established in every province. He contributed to this work according to his expertise... It's no joke, dear NEW Party members, we will be at the most critical turning point in history in 1.5 years. Either autocracy or democracy, or all democrats will come and take control of the fate of the country. Either the black order of the AK Party will be destroyed in this country and a democratic and humane order will be established, as Ataturk wanted, or this disaster will continue forever. District presidents are not enough. For this, an all-out struggle, to continue an all-out struggle without leaving anyone alone, to knock on every door, to talk to every acquaintance, to take a survey of every graduated student, retired teachers, to have a private conversation with every shopkeeper, to go to every tradesman you shop with and talk to everyone with whom you have money about the black order of the AK Party and to support the NEW Party's system that values people, is egalitarian, and will bring justice in income, taxes and social life. "Everyone of you is needed to explain. That's why today's provincial congress is not the day of a struggle in Yozgat, nor is it the last day of an establishment in Yozgat. This provincial congress is the day when the first step of the march to power will be made street by street, house by house, coffee house by field, shop by shop. We think like this."
“EVERYTHING WILL BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FROM HERE ON”
