The delegation appointed by NEW Party Chairman Özgür Özel and chaired by Group Deputy Chairman Ali Mahir Başkar made a statement at the Mersin Provincial Directorate. The delegation included Ali Mahir Başkar, Talat Dinçer, Burhanettin Bulut, Orhan Sümer, Ayhan Barut and Servet Mullaoğlu.
ALİ MAHİR BAŞARIR: "WE WILL CONTINUE TO STAND BY DEMOCRACY"
Basarir said that they had contacts with the police and municipality after Mersin Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Vahap Seçer, Mezitli Mayor Ahmet Serkan Tuncer and Yenişehir Mayor Abdullah Özyiğit were taken into custody. Basarir said:
"We defend the will of our Mersin. Today, the Metropolitan Mayor, Mezitli Mayor, Yenişehir Mayor are in custody. We came here as soon as we received the news. Our Provincial Mayor Mr. Cengiz Gökçel, our Adana Deputy Mr. Burhanettin Bulut, Mr. Ayhan Barut, Orhan Sümer, Hatay Deputy Servet Mullaoğlu and of course our Mersin Deputy, our companion Talat Dinçer... Follower of the incident We went to the police, we went to the municipality. As I said, we want no elected person to be treated this way. As a criminal lawyer, I have always said that no one should be arrested. If there is a real crime, then the punishment should be given. But if someone is not arrested at 6 in the morning, Mr. Vahap Seçer has 60 percent of the votes. If the doors of Ahmet Serkan Tuncer, who received 70 votes, and Abdullah Özyiğit, who received 75 percent of the votes, are being knocked on, this will not happen. Today, the people of Mersin are really anxious, unhappy and angry. I say do not do this evil. We will be here tomorrow and we will continue to stand by democracy.
CENGİZ GÖKÇEL: "THEY ARE KNOWINGLY TRYING TO DRAW PERCEPTION TO OTHER SIDES"
NEW Party Mersin Provincial Chairman Cengiz Gökçel also described the detentions as "a blow to the country's democracy". Gökçel said:
"One of the basic rules of democracy is elections. We do not accept the operation carried out today morning against our friends who became mayors of Mersin by election. We think that this is a blow to the democracy of the country. We never accept such bad treatment of elected people through a judicial coup, or the reputation assassination of these people by being taken into custody. The purpose here is precisely for the NEW Party to produce policies that will defend Turkish democracy, for our Chairman Özgür Özel to put forward a course of action against the injustices committed in Türkiye, and for the government to Unfortunately, the attacks increased as we saw that this dark order would be changed in the first elections.
This is a double standard practice. Especially recently, we have seen how some people who served at the highest level of the AKP, served as ministers and were closest to the President, pocketed billions of lira, the money of these people, through fund profiteering and stock market speculation. There is no arrest or trial for them. It says someone's property was confiscated. Next thing we know, they lift the precaution. Now, when we look at the operation here, they are trying to divert perception to other sides, knowing that AKP's corruption will definitely come to the fore.
But no matter what they do, no matter how much pressure they apply, they will not be able to intimidate our friends and us. We will definitely expose these corruptions committed by people who are members of the AKP and have reached the highest level of party leadership, and we will reveal to the public what kind of political understanding they govern this country. We will change this government together with our people at the ballot box in the first elections. "We never accept this cruelty against mayors."
BURHANETTİN BULUT: "IT IS AN ORGANIZED EVIL"
NEW Party Adana Deputy Burhanettin Bulut evaluated the operations against mayors as "dual law". Comparing the allegations regarding the funding crisis with the investigations against mayors, Bulut made the following assessment:
"As the NEW Party delegation, we came as soon as we heard from the morning. They normalized another dawn operation in the country. Taking mayors at the first light of the morning, they normalized the bilateral law. No one is surprised anymore. When a mayor is detained in the morning, they think of normalizing these evils that will not even be in the newspapers from the first day, as if the citizens do not see it. On the contrary, the citizens are aware of these events that are happening in front of everyone's eyes. Someone is invited to the prosecutor's office. At noon, he leaves with his gum in his mouth, clucking." He gives statements to the police and the prosecutor's office, and when he comes out, he can make a statement to the press as if he were a threat. This is also a law. Or the previous minister can get rich with a fund profiteering of 2.2 billion TL. I mean 2.2 billion TL, not with old money, but with new money. 455 thousand of our citizens can be taken from their small savings and this is not even subject to investigation.
On the other hand, the profiteering in the stock market has turned into a figure of 20 billion TL. When you look at it, not a single politician is involved in these affairs or even questioned. But next thing you know, municipalities and all opposition groups are subject to this investigation. The only reason why we came here as this party is this: This issue is neither a Vahap Seçer issue nor a New Party issue. This is an image of the lawlessness that exists in Türkiye, the existing distrust, and the attempt against democracy. And I say all the operations that take place, without making any distinction between municipalities, they are all political. Some of our friends, people who appear to be oppositionists in politics, who appear to be oppositionists in quotation marks, are at the point they expressed before: 'This is not political, something else is going on here.' He separated the people by saying. It is also noteworthy that while he was saying those words to those who were close to where he was or to those who did not leave his party, he said the opposite today. What is happening here is an evil designed by the government not to leave this place. It is an organized evil. It leaves no opposition.
Our friends are in custody today, but none of our friends are guilty of anything. We say this upfront. No family, no one, those close to the family, those who voted for them here in Mersin should have any doubts. We are in such a period. This is a transition period. But this struggle will continue. It seems that they will do these evil deeds until the ballot box. Because in dual law, while on one side, someone is being made rich by profiteering billions of dollars, on the other side, 'Let them keep quiet, let them not speak, let them not oppose.' It is an operation to silence politicians. In the last example, social media and news channels are blocked. This is an image of the politics that exists in Türkiye. But I say it again, in the first elections, citizens will show the consequences of all these events at the ballot box. These experiences are not left to anyone. Because I want them to know that just as no one got away with Ergenekon and Sledgehammer in previous periods in Türkiye, the oppressors in this period will not get away with it either."
ORHAN SÜMER: "THEY ARE TRYING TO DISTORT THE SUBJECT IN ANOTHER PLACE"
Adana Deputy Orhan Sümer also stated that they support the mayors and argued that the operations are part of the government's effort to change its own agenda.
Sümer said, "I think that the current government is trying to create another agenda every day in order to cover up its own corruption and its own mistakes because it has nothing left to give to this beautiful country of ours. We know very well that our Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor, our other mayors, our Adana Metropolitan Municipality Mayor, our Mersin Metropolitan Municipality Mayor have nothing to give to this society other than service. We are their guarantors and we will continue to stand behind them with our people. But everyone should know that this government has nothing to give to this country anymore." "There is nothing left. They are aware that they are gone. They are trying to misrepresent the issue with misleading statements for as long as they can. But our people are now aware of this. The day the ballot box comes, they will give the necessary answer at the ballot box," he said.
SERVET MULLAOĞLU: "WE ARE BACK TO THE MIDDLE AGES"
Hatay Deputy Servet Mullaoğlu reacted to the investigation method and said:
"The Minister of Justice constantly says that Türkiye is a state of law. In the rule of law and according to our Constitution, not only our citizens have to abide by the law. Governments and administrations also have to abide by the law in all their actions and transactions. At this stage, the government is clearly committing crimes just to consolidate their own power. We are back in the same Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages, evidence was first sought from the defendant. Modern criminal law rejects this. Because there will be concrete evidence so that you can find the defendant. Here, the defendant is completely targeted politically first. The target is The person is taken, and then they try to find evidence. Even though years have passed, no concrete evidence has been presented regarding most of our friends who were arrested today. We will not surrender to this mentality that wants to take our country back to the Middle Ages.
Now, is Türkiye on the side of democracy or autocracy? It has come to such a crossroads. The fact that these events are taking place today, on the eve of an organization held in Mersin where money was stolen from the pockets of 500 thousand citizens through an organization in which the government and all of them were AKP supporters, is a completely political operation. Türkiye is not a tent state. Those who consider themselves very powerful today will receive a big slap from this nation. No one is greater than this nation and they will learn the necessary lesson at the first ballot box. Our nation should not despair. As the cruelty of the oppressor increases, his departure becomes quicker. That's why I believe that our nation sees these and that this oppression will continue in the first election. "This oppression will end, I say."
AYHAN BARUT: "WE WILL BURY THIS ABOMINATE GOVERNMENT IN THE BALLOT AND ESTABLISH THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE"
Adana Deputy Ayhan Barut also stated that mayors can testify when called and described the operations carried out in the morning hours as "reputation assassination". Barut stated the following in his statement:
"These attacks on our social democratic municipalities have now become bittersweet. Our people do not trust or believe in these operations, these attacks. Because these operations are not legal, they are political operations, and the will of the people of Mersin has now been usurped. While the mayors, each of whom are considered the symbols of the city, who came with around 60 percent of the votes, could testify when called and should be tried without detention, unfortunately, an assassination of reputation is being carried out on the municipalities and our mayors with the usual routine, dawn operations.
Why did this operation happen today? As our friends have said, just recently, hundreds of billions of lira from hundreds of thousands of citizens were fabricated into funds, absorbed through the fund system, and transferred to AK Party supporters and deputy ministers; Unfortunately, in order to create a perception of this money, which is the right of orphans, a symbol was needed after it was first brought to the agenda in the Turkish Grand National Assembly through the work of our esteemed Member of Parliament Deniz Yavuzyılmaz.
This symbol was Mersin Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Vahap Seçer and our district mayors. With an operation carried out through them, they want to remove this robbery, which was stolen from that fund and internalized, called the robbery of the century, from the AKP government and transfer the agenda to another place. But our people know it, everyone knows it. The spear no longer fits in the sack. Therefore, we will all complain about this system of lies to our people. Of course, these days will come to an end. That ballot box will also come. "We will bury this government, this tyrannical government, in the ballot box and establish the power of the people."
TALAT DİNÇER: "WE ARE LIVING IN A PERIOD WHERE THERE IS NO RIGHTEOUSNESS, LAW OR JUSTICE"
Mersin Deputy Talat Dinçer made the following evaluation:
"Today is October 1. In fact, today was supposed to be the opening of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, where our legislative activities will begin. We were all in Ankara. However, when we opened our eyes in the morning, unfortunately, we were faced with such a coup. What is happening here is actually a coup against democracy. In other words, a coup that disregards the people's decision. I especially underline this. In a place like Mersin, our mayors came to this office with the votes of our people, receiving over 60 percent of the votes. But for some reason, neither the people's decision is taken into account, nor the rules of law. is taken into account, nor is justice taken into account.
We have come to such a point that we are living in a period where there is no right, law or justice. And today, people living in Türkiye have neither property security nor life security. The situation has come to this point. Anyone who has money and their company can be oppressed. Anyone who has excelled even a little can be immediately taken and thrown into prison. And we are living in such a period that people's guilt is not proven. People are being let in without any crime. So, first try a crime and the crime will be proven. If he is being punished, my brother, if he is punished, let him be investigated. But you can directly detain and arrest our mayors, who came to power by the decision of the people, without any judgment or decision being made.
This is a black order. People need relief now. Look, retirees have problems, farmers have problems. The products are not worth money. Tradesmen cannot make siftah. The business world cannot see the future. To those who close it, to those who declare concordat, and to those who flee abroad. All these are the real issues of the country. But at the point we have reached, such a perception is being created that you see that there is corruption in municipalities. What if there is corruption, there is fund fraud. It just appeared yesterday, it's been around for a few days. In other words, 20 billion dollars are being spent. There is not a single arrest. There is no one detained. But in addition to this, you immediately impose fines on poor people just because a tradesman here did a small job and did not issue a receipt. We live in such a system. I hope we will get rid of this order together. Our Chairman Özgür Özel is developing good policies to relieve this society. "I hope that together, with our people, we will recapture those democratic days," he said.
