ANKARA – DEM Party Co-Chairs Tülay Hatimoğulları and Tuncer Bakırhan and CHP Chair Özgür Özel, who held a press conference after the meeting at CHP Headquarters, whose main agenda was the election, said that they talked about many issues, especially the election.
The meeting held at CHP Headquarters between Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Co-Chairs Tülay Hatimoğulları and Tuncer Bakırhan and CHP Chair Özgür Özel ended. DEM Party Co-Chairs Tülay Hatimoğulları and Tuncer Bakırhan and CHP Chair Özgür Özel held a press conference after the meeting.
‘WE WILL EXCHANGE OPINIONS WITH THE DEM PARTY'
CHP Chair Özel, who spoke first at the meeting, stated that he was pleased with the visit of the DEM Party Co-Chairs to them and said: "We were at the DEM Party Headquarters recently to congratulate them after their congress and wish them success. Today they also paid a return visit to us. I would like to express our satisfaction with this and welcome them and all their members. Although today's visit is a courtesy visit, it is the first steps of communication between the two parties at the level of the party headquarters. In the future, we will continue to maintain our relations with the DEM Party, which is the third party represented in the Parliament and has the most seats in the Parliament, in an open and transparent manner, make mutual visits and exchange views on very important issues of Turkey.”
THE MEETING WAS NOT INDEPENDENT OF THE LOCAL ELECTIONS
Özel continued his speech as follows: “Today we talked about the country's issues. We had the opportunity to talk about this economic crisis, which is most painful for retirees, and purchasing difficulties, economic crisis, unemployment and all the crises that Turkey is going through. While discussing the country's issues during this visit, we talked about both the economic and political dimensions of the issue. Of course, the agenda of today's meeting was not independent of the local elections when they were so close
WE STRONGLY REJECT THE TRUSTEE POLICY
I would like to express here an issue that I have expressed before, as the Chair of a political party that founded the Republic and introduced the multi-party regime in the 100th year of the Republic, and rightly boasts of bringing multi-party democracy to the country; It is not possible for us to accept a country in which some voters can elect local administrators, while others cannot elect their local administrators, and even if they do, they are not allowed to govern on the 100th anniversary of the Republic. That's why we once again firmly and clearly reject this trustee policy. In 81 provinces of this country, in more than 1000 districts of this country, every voter in this country must be able to choose who will govern them, and the people they elect must be able to continue to govern them.
HATIMOĞULLARI: WE DISCUSSED MANY TOPICS
DEM Party Co-Chair Tülay Hatimoğulları said: “Dear press workers, our valuable people, the Republican People's Party, had a visit to us a few weeks ago and we paid a return visit to them today. I would like to thank them for their warm welcome and hosting. As Mr. Özel stated, we discussed many topics today. We talked about the political process that Turkey and the world are going through. We especially tried to evaluate the economic problems, judicial crisis and anti-democratic practices in Turkey. The judicial crisis has reached such a deep level that now while dear Can Atalay must be in the parliament as a member of parliament from an earthquake region, an earthquake city; currently he is in prison. While HDP's Co-Chairs must be in their respective positions and continue to work together with the public, their trials in the Kobanê conspiracy case continue for purely political reasons that have no place in law. We estimate that it will be decided soon. With these events, we have once again witnessed the anti-democratic practices of the judiciary, practices that do not recognize the constitution and the law.
WE EMPHASIS THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SOLUTION ONCE AGAIN
Again, in the deep economic crisis in our country and in fact at a time when local elections are approaching, these issues are perhaps less talked about, but while these issues are issues that we all feel closely in our kitchens and in our pots, while nearly 50 million people in Turkey are left alone with hunger and poverty, we must not allow certain groups to make them invisible and we must take a stance against this. As the DEM Party in this country, we emphasize once again that it is important to open the door to solving the Kurdish issue, which is one of the most fundamental issues in front of the democratization of this country, through peaceful and democratic methods.
IT IS EVERYONE'S DUTY TO BUILD THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
It is our duty to democratize this country today and build a Democratic Republic in the second century of the Republic. It is a historical opportunity for us to complete what we have left missing throughout the century and to put the stones of democracy into place, which were not established sufficiently and even resulted in more negativities. We attach importance to waging this struggle in the second century and waging this struggle with absolutely all segments, all political and social segments.
WE ALSO TALKED ABOUT COOPERATION AND METHODS
Today, of course, we had a meeting, although not in depth, about what can be done on these issues, 'what are the ways and methods, whether it is possible or not' about cooperation. We hope that the local elections we will hold in the coming days will be of a quality that will ensure the country's democracy and pave the way for all the problem areas we have just talked about. I would like to thank CHP Chair Mr. Özgür Özel and his delegation for hosting me again.
IT IS IMPORTANT THAT THE DIALOGUE CONTINUES
It is important for dialogues to continue, in a time when we are separated and polarized, and in a time when politics and politicians are criminalized, standing side by side, speaking in solidarity, and being able to co-exist differences is an example of democracy. This example needs to be strengthened further. We hope that we, as all democratic forces, can work together at all scales to further strengthen this in the coming days.”
BAKIRHAN: TURKEY IS EXPERIENCED IN SIGNIFICANT CRISIS
DEM Party Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan, who started his speech by saying that their visit was not just a return visit, said: “Turkey is experiencing very important issues and crises both in the region and within itself. There is nothing more natural than both the main opposition party and our opposition party exchanging ideas on these issues that Turkey is experiencing. As our Co-Chair and CHP Chair said, many things were talked about and discussed."
THE OPPOSITION SHOULD BE CONSISTENT ABOUT THE TRUSTEES
Bakırhan said: “Trustees are not only our party's problem, the opposition must be consistent on this issue. We also talked and discussed local elections, which are one of Turkey's main agendas. You also follow; There is an unresolved Kurdish issue in Turkey and a dual law is applied in the region. For two terms, trustees have been appointed according to the will of the Kurds, our people. These trustees are not just the issue of the DEM Party, our voters and the Kurds. These trustees are also the main problem of both political parties and people who call themselves modern, progressive, left, social democrat in Turkey, as they were appointed to our will. We want this trustee regime and trustee system to end in the coming period. We think that the opposition should put forward a consistent language and policy against this dual law.
WE DETERMINE OUR CANDIDATES BY PUBLIC VOTE
You followed it too, we are trying to hold a referendum that has never been seen anywhere in Turkey, especially in Turkey, with 100 thousand delegates in approximately 90 settlements. We; As a political party that cares about local democracy and decentralization, we will follow a method based on the decisions made by our people. Naturally, a party that cares about locality and local democracy also carefully monitors the elections of candidates whose qualifications and characteristics are known in the local elections in the West.
WE WILL BE RESPONSIVE FOR THE SELECTION OF POPULIST AND SOCIALIST ADMINISTRATORS
In the next election, we will be responsive to the election of administrators based on democratic, populist, transparent, socialist municipalism in Turkey within the framework of urban reconciliation. We expressed today that these options, including cooperation and unity, must be discussed in order for our understanding of local governments to find a response in the West in the coming days. Our friends will carry out a study on which cities will cooperate with the Urban Consensus in local governments and in which cities this work can be carried out. As a party, we will put forth all our efforts to ensure that the workers, the poor and the populist community that reflects their will win in the upcoming local elections.
I would also like to express my gratitude to the CHP Headquarters, employees and managers, in the person of Mr. Özgür Özel, for their warm hospitality to us. Good luck to all of you."