In his group speech, President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan once again targeted CHP's 7th President Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
Targeting Kılıçdaroğlu, who recently drew attention with his defense in a hearing in which he was the plaintiff, Erdoğan used the following expressions:
“The latest example of this is the rubbish, insults and slanders that the former CHP chairman, who has been banned from politics, hurled like a truck with no brakes in the courtroom where he was a defendant recently. This person, who has lost every election without exception, is a former politician who was insulted in his own party, ousted by a shady congress and sent into exile. It is said that a defeated wrestler is never satisfied with wrestling. While he is on the hunt for delegates and forging shadowy alliances to take his party back to the convention, he sees the way to come to the agenda by teasing us, or more precisely, by making a premium on us.”
‘Who is he sending a message to with the phrase ’shady congress'?
Erdoğan called the CHP's 38th Ordinary General Assembly, in which Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu lost the presidency and Özgür Özel was elected chairman, a “shady congress” and it is not the first time he has used this expression.
In his speech at the AKP Provincial Chairmen's meeting on October 22, Erdoğan had said that the removal of those who had been spreading hatred among the nation for years on the basis of their affiliation, origin and ideology, albeit through a shady congress process, was a valuable achievement in terms of Turkey's unity and solidarity.
It was noteworthy that Erdoğan used the term ‘shady’ for the congress in which Özgür Özel was elected as the chairman about a month apart.
Following the CHP's 38th Ordinary Congress, the allegation that an investigation had been launched into the congress was on the public agenda at the time. However, there was no development on this investigation afterwards. There are evaluations that Erdoğan's claim of a ‘shady congress’ is a reference to that investigation and that with these words he is sending a message to Özgür Özel and the CHP leadership that ‘I am keeping an eye on you’.
CHP administration did not respond to that allegation
On the other hand, Özgür Özel and the CHP leadership have not responded to Erdoğan's ‘shady congress’ remarks so far. This silence of the party leadership is noteworthy in the CHP, where extraordinary congress discussions are ongoing. Moreover, the fact that Erdoğan said this after Özgür Özel said “I am ready to go to meet Assad with Erdoğan if necessary” in a live program was interpreted as ‘Erdoğan is giving a message’ in the political lobbies.