MİT Undersecretary İbrahim Kalın visited the CHP Headquarters last week.
The content of the 3-hour visit was kept secret. Not only the content but also the other names that Kalın met with besides Özgür Özel were kept secret.
“Özgür Özel, who said ”I am in favor of transparency", shared the following information about the content of the meeting with Kübra Par a day after the meeting:
“We asked for intelligence support from MİT to prevent FETÖ or other terrorist organizations from infiltrating CHP during overseas recruitment”
We know how much Özel favors transparency from the X-ray he released when he broke his leg.
However, for the congress for which he was elected “Shady” ‘There must be a reason’ for President Erdoğan to reveal the content of the ‘secret’ meeting with the Undersecretary of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) a day after he had not given a single word of answer for a month.
Just as he expected from the ‘normalization’ policies that he could not explain to the public and the party base, he surely has an expectation from this revelation!
But is this a simple and innocent demand as Özel says?
This actually depends on how you look at the institution and phenomenon of ‘politics’.
If you see politics as an official/semi-official activity carried out with ‘state authorization’ and the field of politics as such, you can call this demand ‘normal’.
If you see politics as a civil activity carried out by the ‘will of the people’ and the political arena as such, there is no other option but to call this demand ‘scandalous’.
If a party like the Republican People's Party, which is one of the few 3-5 parties in the world with a lifespan of more than a century, does not consider any other option than requesting a report from MİT to accept members, it means that it has given up on civilian politics.
And let's look at the context in which he did it;
This request is being made in an environment where just 3 weeks ago the CHP mayor of Esenyurt, Ahmet Özer, was arrested on charges of ‘membership in a terrorist organization’!
The reason for Özer's arrest was leaked to the pro-government media as follows:
“He was arrested on the basis of evidence obtained after 10 years of surveillance.”
And who did this surveillance?
Does MİT, which Özgür Özel asked for help in recruiting members, play a role in this surveillance?
Two days after Özgür Özel asked for MİT's help, a trustee was appointed to CHP's Ovacık Municipality.
Ovacik Mayor Mustafa Saricgul “membership in a terrorist organization” was sentenced to imprisonment and this trustee decision followed.
Following this decision, the CHP formed a delegation and sent it to Ovacik.
CHP Chairman Özgür Özel responds to trustee decisions “The main issue with the trustees appointed to CHP and DEM municipalities is to punish the people. It is to defy the will of the people” "I'm not going to be able to do it.
And what will Özgür Özel say if tomorrow an MIT report is placed in front of him stating that Mustafa Sarıgül, the elected mayor of Ovacık, is a member of a terrorist organization?
If it goes even further, if all 414 mayors summoned by the CHP to an extraordinary meeting in Ankara are reported to have ties with different terrorist organizations, what will Özel's reaction be?
“I don't trust MIT's reports” can he say?
In this case, İbrahim Kalım is the Undersecretary of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and Erdoğan appointed him Undersecretary of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), “If you don't trust them, why did you ask MIT to help you recruit members for your party?” "What's wrong with you?
Remember Suleyman Soylu, who in the past boasted of being the country's longest serving Interior Minister “505 terrorism-linked employees were recruited to IBB during Imamoğlu's term” that he's the one who's been killed?
As a matter of fact, when he was later invited to prove this claim, he said that he was exercising his right to ‘political criticism’!
I wonder how the CHP leadership will explain the fact that the state has turned into a party state, that all institutions from TÜİK to the judiciary take orders from the Palace, while asking for MİT's help for membership applications to the party.
‘Does Özel think that ’all institutions work like a party state, except MIT'?
**
Moreover, even if all institutions function as institutions of the rule of law and not as institutions of the party state, it is a major scandal in all democratic countries of the world for a political party to ask for ‘help’ from intelligence for recruitment of members.
The primary task of political parties is known as ‘coming to power’, but it is not. The primary duty of parties is to expand the space and ground for politics. Especially in a country like Turkey, where the space for politics has been constantly narrowed by coups, handing over the space for politics to the ‘state’ is a betrayal of the political institution itself.
When I learned about Özel's statement during a live broadcast I attended, my first reaction was “A trustee has been appointed in charge of your party” It happened.
“I am aware of what I am saying. I am addressing the CHP members who blocked the path of the Interior Minister for the trustee appointed to Esenyurt today. A trustee has been appointed to your party. You know what you have to do.” pic.twitter.com/9bjiKfmfXO
- Atakan Sonmez (@atakansmz) November 21, 2024
Some of my CHP friends said, ‘Isn't that harsh?’ for the expression I used.
It's not heavy, let me explain why not:
The main purpose of the trustee practice is to narrow the space for politics and expand the space for state authority.
Therefore, when a mayor is dismissed, it is not desirable to hold elections in municipal assemblies to elect a new mayor.
The only exception was in 2017.
When President Erdoğan dismissed Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Kadir Topbaş, Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Melih Gökçek, Balıkesir Metropolitan Mayor Ahmet Edip Uğur and Bursa Metropolitan Mayor Recep Altepe, elections were held in municipal assemblies instead of appointing trustees to replace them. Because the AKP-MHP coalition was in the majority in all these municipal assemblies and AKP mayors were elected to replace the dismissed mayors!
Because in Erdoğan's understanding of politics, the right to do politics is a right defined separately for AKP supporters and separately for others!
This is precisely why, far from expanding the space for politics, if the chairman of the main opposition party voices such an oddity as ‘the requirement of approval from the National Intelligence Organization for party membership’, which even the September 12 coup plotters did not think of and which Erdoğan did not dare to voice even during his 22 years in power, then either a trustee has been appointed at the head of that party or the mindset of that chairman has been taken over by the ‘trustee’ mentality.
There is no other explanation.
Kılıçdaroğlu's historic defense
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the 7th chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP), attended the hearing of the lawsuit demanding imprisonment and a ‘political ban’ against him at the Ankara Courthouse on Friday.
Kılıçdaroğlu is being asked to be punished for criticizing Erdoğan during his term as CHP chairman, when he was also an MP. Moreover, one of these penalties is a ‘political ban’.
Look, there are two kinds of attempts to narrow the space for politics.
The first is to ban Kılıçdaroğlu directly from politics.
The second is to intimidate all those who are actually engaged in politics, sending the message that ‘your immunity will not protect you’.
Moreover, the country's Minister of Justice, the day before the trial “If politicians take an example, they will end up like this former chairman. It is a lesson for our politicians” and wagged his finger at all politicians.
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu “If you have the courage, come to the court tomorrow and listen to what I have to say to your master, listen and maybe you will take an example” challenged the Minister for intimidating politics by saying.
On the morning of November 22nd, Kılıçdaroğlu was present at the Ankara Courthouse, but the minister he challenged was not!
Moreover, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu was not the only one at the Ankara Courthouse.
There were thousands of people waiting at the courthouse gate, coming from various provinces of Turkey.
Moreover, they were not people who came in vehicles provided by CHP provincial/district organizations or CHP municipalities.
Some came by car, some by bus, some by train.
Kazım Bilgen's ‘Justice Bus’ was also there, but it could not be there during the hearing because the police pulled it so that it would not stop in front of the courthouse.
Since it was a weekday, employees took leave from their workplaces.
The hearing was announced to start at 14.00.
Those who had set out overnight were already in front of the courthouse in the morning.
It was not an event where CHP municipalities distributed food and provisions. Most of them ate bagels and waited for the hearing time in the courthouse garden.
When Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, accompanied by his family and Ayşe Ateş, arrived at the Ankara Courthouse to make his defense, the enthusiasm went through the roof.
Thousands of people waiting outside the courthouse “Right, law, justice!” and “Kılıçdaroğlu is the hope of the people!” Kılıçdaroğlu entered the courthouse amid slogans.
The hearing was crammed into a cramped courtroom and very few people were allowed inside.
The defense of a political case would of course be political, not legal. As a matter of fact, there was not a legal accusation, but a purely political one.
Already Kılıçdaroğlu “Don't think I'm going for defense, I'm going to ask Erdogan to account for the corruption he has done and made him do” He said.
It happened exactly as he said it would.
In every period of history, the rulers have had courts and the people have had lawyers and defenders.
It happened again!
Kılıçdaroğlu had come to the courtroom that day as a defender with many powers of attorney in his pocket.
He was there on behalf of 1-year-old Aras Bulut, 2-year-old Masal Işık, 3-year-old Aslan Miraç, 4-year-old Funda Peri and 5-year-old Fadime Nefes who lost their lives in the fire in Izmir recently.
Only them?
Oğuz Arda Sel, Samet Özgül and Sinan Ateş came with their power of attorney in their pockets and the support of their families seeking justice.
He was there to demand the rights of Ali Ismail, Abdocan, Mehmet Ayvalıtaş, Abdullah Cömert, Ethem Sarısülük, Ahmet Atakan, Berkin Elvan, all of whom were murdered during Gezi.
He was going to defend all the youngsters whose lives were taken by the degenerate structure called the Yenidoğan gang in order to make more money, and their tearful families left behind.
Kılıçdaroğlu also had the proxy in his pocket for the miners who died underground in Soma, Amasra, Ermenek, İliç and Elbistan for their livelihood. .
He came to the Ankara Courthouse with the responsibility of carrying the power of attorney of Uğur Kaymaz, who was murdered at the age of 12 with 13 bullets, Ceylan Önkol, whose 12-year-old body parts were collected by her mother and carried on her skirt, and 34 citizens who lost their lives in Uludere, not only in his pocket but also on his shoulders and conscience.
Ceren Özdemir, Özgecan Aslan, Pınar Gültekin, Gülistan Doku, Nadira Kadirova, Rojin Kabaiş
The proxy of Leyla Aydemir, Rabia Naz, Narin Güran and all the children we cannot protect and keep alive...
She had taken her place in the courtroom to ask for the accountability of every murdered woman, every child and young person victimized by drug lords for their right to life, which they would take from every single person who had a say in the governance of this country, even for a single day.
Not only as Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, not only as someone who served as the chairman of the Republican People's Party, “I will not feed a single penny to orphans in this country” for saying, “Not a single child in this country will go to bed hungry” for saying, “I'll be damned if I don't gouge the eyes of those who covet the bread of this nation” In that trial, he was technically sitting in the ‘defendant’ seat, but historically he was sitting in the ‘judge’ seat.
In his defense “I am here not to defend myself for a crime I have committed, but to record the crimes committed, to ask for an account of them and to make a note in history” by saying.
“Fortunately for me, I did not appear before the court on the charge of ‘bribery’. Fortunately for me, I did not appear before you as ‘a thief guilty of embezzlement who eats orphans’ rights‘. And again, fortunately for me, Your Honor, I did not appear before you for ’treason‘. I appeared before you, Your Honor, because I called a thief a thief” The defense has already taken its place among the defenses that have marked Turkey's political history.
After making his historic defense, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu left the courthouse.
CHP Chairman Özgür Özel and Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Yavaş were with him as he left the courthouse.
The same slogans were raised in front of the Ankara Courthouse.
“Right, law, justice!”
“Kılıçdaroğlu is the hope of the people!”
CHP's 7th President Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu “Close ranks” Thousands of people responding to his call had rallied so tightly that Özgür Özel and others who were with him outside the courthouse even risked being crushed in the stampede!
There were people who fell ill.
Of course, there were some people who got sick because of the crowd, and there were some who did not attend that day but got sick because of the crowd.
Who are they?
First of all, of course, those who want to push Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu out of politics by filing this lawsuit.
Only them?
Those who hoped for ‘political benefit’ from Kılıçdaroğlu's political destruction and their fifth columnists also suffered.
The excitement and hope that the historic hearing created in millions of people in the country, the trust and sincere loyalty of thousands of people at the courthouse gates to a politician they trusted, made some people feel sick.
They have already shown how sick they are with their posts and broadcasts.
As a matter of fact, history has once again played out its verdict.
This trial, which put those who wanted to judge as defendants and those who wanted to be judged as heroes, has taken its place in history as a ‘testament’ that politics done ‘for the people’ is paid back by the people.
And of course, if a political reading of every political event is to be made, the attacks left and right, which have sworn to erase him from politics, have not diminished Kılıçdaroğlu's political weight, but in parallel with the resistance shown as the dose of the attacks increased, Kılıçdaroğlu's political presence and weight have increased even more.