Deputy chairs of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) lambasted Özgür Özel after the Turkish main opposition leader claimed Türkiye was ruled by a junta.
Addressing members of his party on Sunday as he stood as the only candidate for the top seat of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Özel has branded the presidency led by AK Party leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a junta “fearing the public.” Ömer Çelik, AK Party spokesperson and deputy chair, responded to Özel in kind, highlighting that the CHP itself has been a staunch supporter of juntas of the past.
“The CHP equals junta. Özgür Özel does not know his political history. Defining our president who won public support in every election he competed in such a way is nothing but a malignant political ignorance. It is, as a matter of fact, a CHP tradition to define the public will and democratically elected leaders as the junta,” Çelik said, adding that the CHP also viewed past juntas as representatives of democracy.
“Our president’s great political struggle rendered all secret and open juntas influential over our democracy. The CHP, on the other hand, continues to pledge allegiance to the mindset behind Yassıada,” Çelik stated. Yassıada was the name of the island in the Marmara Sea where Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, ministers and other top figures were tried after the 1960 coup. It was decided on the island (renamed Democracy and Freedoms Island under the AK Party years later) by a junta court that Menderes and his two ministers should be executed. The CHP, which tasted its first defeat in 1950 to Menderes’ Democrat Party (DP) paved the way for the 1960 coup and supported the military to seize power.
AK Party Deputy Chair Hayati Yazıcı also criticized Özel’s remarks, saying that the CHP was apparently panicking after being caught red-handed, referring to corruption allegations against the incumbent administration of the main opposition party, as well as a separate investigation into bribery and graft allegedly committed by CHP’s Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu.
“They cannot say a word about corruption allegations, yet, they can conveniently target our elected president,” Yazıcı said in a social media post.
Yazıcı described Özel’s remarks as “a reflection of the dangerous and ugly political path the CHP embarked upon.”
“It is a reflection of a problematic mindset ignoring people’s will and democracy,” he stated.
“This provocative discourse, insults and defamation will not carry the CHP to power. It will only cost their reputation. I urge the chair of the main opposition to apologize to our nation and Mr. President,” he said.