81 provincial chairs of the Republican People's Party (CHP) made a joint statement on some investigations and lawsuits against their party.
“We will not give way to the conspiracies against the Republican People's Party,” the statement reads:
The Republican People's Party is Turkey's longest-established political force with a hundred-year history of struggle. Knowing this, the foci of evil are launching extra-legal and unscrupulous attacks on our party, the main opposition party, and trying to organize reputation assassinations. These attacks are against the founding values of our party and the millions of fellow travelers it represents. These attacks are against the raison d'être of democratic society, the rule of law and the free will of our citizens. These attacks are aimed at encircling the opposition and narrowing its room for maneuver.
We consider the indictments against our Istanbul metropolitan mayor, the attacks against our mayors, the attempts to cut the resources of our municipalities in this context.
The latest round of these attacks are baseless attempts to defame our last congress, which are doomed to be fruitless.
Our congress, which will be remembered as a milestone in the political history of Turkey, has been a great feast of democracy, proving that the government can change as a result of a democratic competition within the party. We are the owners of a great historical heritage that founded the Republic of Turkey, transitioned it to a multi-party democracy, and handed over power to its political opponent peacefully and in the manner required by democracy.
In the light of this historical legacy and with our strong belief in democracy, we would like to express that the free will of our Assembly delegates was manifested in our 38th Ordinary Assembly, as in all our assemblies, in a way that leaves no room for any doubt. No smear attempt can change this truth. To do otherwise is nothing but an insult to the history and identity of the Republican People's Party. Attacking and defaming this historical legacy for short-term political interests only diminishes the attacker.
In the first elections after the congress, we became the first party in Turkey after 47 years, with a result that showed that the hope we gave to the people was socialized.
We know that the reason for all the attacks we are facing today is our success in the local elections on March 31, 2024. We know very well that the attacks stem from the fact that we are still the first party. Unlike the government, we did not see being the first party as a success, but as an important responsibility to serve our citizens, and we continue to do so.
Instead of accepting the people's choices and learning lessons from them, the government insists on a political understanding that fights with the people's choices, seeks to usurp the will of the people and wages war against the people.
This is the understanding that is today settling accounts with the will of our delegates and the people in the prosecutors' offices.
The file under investigation regarding our congress is nothing more than the desperation of the mentality that tries to design politics in the corridors of the court, seeking help from a lunatic. We know that this file is not independent from the process being carried out in Istanbul, which is called "the biggest radish in the bag".
The government, which has no possibility of pulling the country out of the multiple crisis it has dragged the country into, is getting more aggressive day by day.
We know that the aim of these attacks is primarily to prevent the rise of our party and to create an atmosphere of fear and distrust among the people. This attack style is exactly the same as the methods of FETÖ, which has been trying to shape Turkish politics since 2010!
We've seen this game before!
Let no one doubt that we have the power, strength and political will to render these attacks fruitless! Our organization will never allow this. 81 provincial presidents will never allow this.
No power can put a mortgage on the will of the CHP organization! The congress is the highest body of the Republican People's Party and is the honor and dignity of every party member.
Some of the 81 provincial chairs present here democratically supported our former President Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and some supported our President Özgür Özel.
Even though we had different preferences in the democratic competition within the party, from the moment the results of the congress were announced, we, as 81 provincial presidents, have been walking shoulder to shoulder, one body, one heart, on the journey to power. Under the leadership of our Chairman Özgür Özel, all our organizations, youth branches, women's branches have continued to keep our party standing firmly as the first party.
In this process, we are aware of the political front that is trying to weaken our party. We call on our organization to be one voice against the forces trying to design politics in the courts!
Our great organization and our people should know that our struggle is for the bright future of Turkey. It is for the end of unemployment, poverty and injustice.
We will continue to talk about the real agenda of the people in the streets and squares. We will change the corrupt order of the palace, where food garbage is produced for 6 thousand people a day, together with the mothers who go to the evening markets for cheap food, with the laborers who take the fruit from their lunch at the factory to their children at home, with the pensioners who are excluded from life. We will destroy the order of those who go abroad in convoys of airplanes with fathers whose shoes get water. Our way is the people's way. Our place is with the people. We will continue to be side by side with our people on the streets. There is no salvation alone, either all together or none of us.”