28 April 2019

28 days ago we completed the most unfair and polarizing election process throughout the history of multi-party democracy in Turkey, during which the ruling party abused its power relentlessly. Our fellow citizens declared their decision by casting their votes and elected the mayors of the cities they live in.

The CHP and İYİ Party had formed the Nation Alliance before the elections; at the ballot box, the electorate transformed this partnership to a broad alliance for democracy.

Our mayors received their mandates. 28 days elapsed since the elections; however, objections to election results are still being examined. This situation is rarely seen in our democratic history.

Objection to election results is undoubtedly a legal right. However, law does not permit one to abuse his\her rights.

Those who have been governing the country since 17 years refuse to handover the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality through elections, a position that they have acquired by elections, too. The objections and statements they air one after another do not have any substantiated validity. Those objections are all aimed at exerting pressure on the Supreme Election Council.

The guiding documents that the Supreme Election Council has to resort to are the electoral law and the related jurisprudence. If the Council is misguided, our country and our democracy will have to pay a very heavy price. The Council cannot shoulder such a liability; it should not yield to those pressures and become an accomplice in a legal scandal.

At a time when our country is going through one of the deepest economic crises in its history, a ‘legal crisis’ which will exacerbate the economic crisis even further should be prevented.

Moreover, at such a critical juncture, a week ago, those who try to stir chaos and muddy the waters attempted to lynch our Chairman, Mr. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. The CHP Party Assembly condemns this attempt before the Turkish nation.

We want to clearly emphasize that we are not going to let anyone exploit this deplorable event to terrorize us and our society.

The lynching attempt is an operation against our nation and our democracy by those who try to by-pass rule of law.

The ruling party’s attempt to trivialize this crime and portray it as a simple act of protest is not innocent: it reflects the panic felt by criminals. Those who represent lies as the truth, those who try to rationalize, justify and legitimize the lynching attempt are accomplices in this attempt.

The CHP will make sure that the perpetrators of the lynching attempt in Ankara, Çubuk be brought to justice.

Those ignorant souls who assume that they can intimidate us by such operations should be reminded that the roots of this party can be traced back to the Kuva-yi Milliye (Turkish Revolutionaries during the War of Independence) and that the original holder of our leader’s seat was Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who was commanding our War of Independence at a time when there was an imperial order for his execution.

No one can dare tell us to “not come to the funerals of our martyrs”. We will not take any advice from those who fail to protect our soldiers before they were martyrized or those who were presumptuous enough to call our martyrs “a bunch of heads”.

The CHP cannot and should not ever be associated with terror and terrorists. However, the ruling party cannot under any circumstance deny the partnerships that they forged with terror and the terrorists in front of everyone’s eyes.

On March 31st, our nation has cast its vote and taught a lesson to those who have been using separatist and polarizing narrative.

The project that started in 2014 to by-pass the Grand National Assembly of Turkey that represent Turkish society in its entirety and to delegate all power to a single man has rapidly divided and polarized our society.

Since the election on June 24th, which led to the creation of a “single man-party state” type of regime, our country has been backsliding in all domains.

What has transpired since June 24 reveals the need to establish a new consensus that will ensure rule of law, separation of powers as well as a system of checks and balances.

Respectfully announced to the public,
Republican People’s Party (The CHP) Party Assembly