NEW Party held a rally in Üsküdar by reading the letter of detained mayor Sinem Dedetaş

NEW Party, which reacted to the change of hands of the municipal administration after the arrest of the elected mayor of Üsküdar, Sinem Dedetaş, met with the citizens at Üsküdar Pier Square.

The letter of the elected Üsküdar Mayor Sinem Dedetaş, who is detained in Tekirdağ Karatepe Women's Closed Penitentiary Institution, was read from the podium by the founding Üsküdar provincial president of the NEW Party.

At the rally held with the slogan "The decision belongs to the nation, Üsküdar belongs to the nation", Dedetaş criticized the process regarding the change of hands of the municipal administration and said, "If it was a well-deserved election, I would congratulate you, but what is possible! If political courtesy were in effect, I would thank you, but what is possible? If the national will was respected, I would be proud, but what is possible!" he said.

Drawing attention to the provision of the Constitution that "Sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the nation", Dedetaş said, "In other words, both the judiciary and the administration take their power directly from you, and they should. However, those who cannot win at the ballot box today want to overshadow the common will of the people."

NEW Party Chairman Özgür Özel started his speech with lines from Grup Yorum's song "The March of Hunger is Growing". Noting that today is the anniversary of the September 12, 1980 coup, Özel said, "Greetings to those who voiced their voices in this square. Shame on those who seek legitimacy from the government and the judiciary, not from this square and the nation."

'WE ARE AGAINST ALL COUPS'

Stating that they are against all coups as the NEW Party, Özel said, "We have never stood behind any coup; we opposed all coups out of respect for the ballot box and the nation, even if it was against someone we did not like."

"We won this election with the pure decision and halal votes of a Republican woman and Üsküdar, which is called Erdoğan's district," said Özel, and added, "I call out to Erdoğan: Is this your democracy, is this your courage, is this your strength? Shame on you."

Explaining what happened during his term as deputy mayor in Üsküdar, Özel argued that Dedetaş was arrested "unlawfully".

Özel stated that four municipal council members changed their stance in the deputy mayor election held on August 5 and said, "In a great betrayal, that day, we saw that four people who were supposedly with us as municipal council members and were selected from our lists changed their stance."

Reminding that the opposition candidate Sibel Tan Çetinkaya was elected in the first election, Özel stated that the election result was annulled by the judicial decision. Stating that the renewal election was planned to be held on September 5, Özel said that three municipal council members were detained three days before the election and two council members were arrested later. Özel, who criticized the vote in which four council members switched to AKP and two council members were arrested, said that at the end of the process, AKP won the deputy mayorship.

'Shame on you'

Addressing the Governor of Istanbul, Davut Gül, Özel said, "Shame on the governor who sits in those offices just because he is the governor of the state, who also sits in that office and becomes the governor of the government, who works for the AK Party rather than the provincial head of the AK Party! But the day will come, times will change, things will change, things will turn around. On that day, those who serve as the provincial heads of the AK Party will be held accountable!" he said.

Arguing that the process in Üsküdar was an event that "will go down in history with shame", Özel said that they filed a criminal complaint regarding the election held after four municipal council members switched to AKP and two council members were arrested.