Reaction from New Party Chairman Özgür Özel to Cemil Tugay: 'My heart hurts inside'

New Party Chairman Özgür Özel spoke at his party's GNAT Group Meeting. Özel, reacting to Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Cemil Tugay's joining the AK Party, used the following statements:

"HE STARTED DOING THINGS THAT WILL DESTROY THE PEOPLE OF IZMIRI"

"At the scene of this fire, the Mayor of Izmir also went and joined the AK Party. He betrayed those who elected him, his companions, disregarded every word he said, every oath he made, every assurance he gave, ignored all the words he had said just 10 days ago, and started praising someone there, grinning brazenly, mocking Izmir, and doing things that would devastate the people of Izmir. This is not the first, and perhaps it will not be the last. It has always been like this in history. Because "This period is a dirty period, and in this period, the dirty and the clean, the brave and the cowards, the profiteers and the heroes will be separated from each other, and they will take their places in history."

Özgür Özel said that they won 29 of the 31 mayoralties in Izmir in the last local elections and achieved the biggest election success in the history of Türkiye. "The candidate, who was determined that day, by various methods, in the same way as other candidates were determined, betrayed today," said Özel and continued his words as follows:

"I'M BURNING INSIDE, MY INSIDE"

"That day, some people who claimed it was a 'great victory, success' came back and talked nonsense to us. I was going to do this, I was going to do that, I was going to make self-criticism. What is self-criticism? It hurts inside me. Look, let me say this for self-criticism: If this hand had signed the last signature for Cemil Tugay, if this hand had been broken, if this head had been broken, they would not have seen this day and they would not have made that dishonorable person a candidate. What is self-criticism? But what is their first self-criticism? Those who did not take any responsibility when the candidate he declared gathered the princesses in Aydın and ran away, those who took no responsibility when their princesses ran from Afyon to the AK Party, 5 of the 6 municipal council members who changed sides in Ataşehir were those who were responsible for the previous term, come forward and come between us and Izmir and say, 'Are you going to apologize?' I will bow down to the people of Izmir, but I will not hand over this party to those who seek dishonor like you. Come to your senses. Who are you? Butlanists. Who are you? Those who surrender to power. Who are you? "Those who were assigned to lose after 47 years of victory."