President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hit out at the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in a speech on Wednesday for the days of riots that erupted after the arrest of CHP’s Istanbul mayor, Ekrem Imamoğlu.
He said the CHP’s reputation was tarnished in the last three weeks because of riots that “incited the youth to take to the streets while (party officials) hid.”
“They could not receive the support they expected from their Western masters,” Erdoğan told a meeting of his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in the capital Ankara. He was referring to the party’s appeal to other countries to support their protest of the mayor’s arrest on charges of corruption.
Erdoğan also hit out at CHP leader Özgür Özel for describing his government as a “junta.”
“The CHP itself is a manifestation of the junta; they wrote the playbook of coup plotters,” he said, elaborating on the opposition party’s fervent support for a 1960 coup.
The CHP was set to resume its daily rallies later Wednesday in Istanbul, long after nights of riots where the youth incited by Özel’s speeches took to the streets to attack police deployed against unauthorized rallies. The CHP-led provocations under the guise of protesting the arrest of Imamoğlu on charges of corruption culminated in a scandalous call by Özel for a general boycott of media and businesses.
Erdoğan said at the parliamentary meeting of the AK Party that they dealt a blow to the opposition’s attempt to harm the economy. “Our nation did not approve the boycott call. Those calling for a boycott are boycotted by our citizens. They thought they would collapse our economy, but they failed. Despite provocation and conspiracies of the opposition, Türkiye is growing,” he said.
“The opposition is engaged in a play. They wrote it, staged it and made the curtain call. Strangely, the spotlight was turned on us in this play,” he said. Erdoğan said the opposition set up “an Escobar-like order” in Istanbul and fought to get a share from the city.
“(CHP) members also lined up to give tip-offs to prosecutors in (corruption cases against CHP figures). Somehow, they try to cover it up and blame us. They thought we would be rabbits caught in the headlights. I am sorry to inform you that this nation will not pay the cost for your own infighting,” Erdoğan said.
“You paid for what you’ve done. You brought this mafia status to the CHP. You set streets on fire to cover up your own problems. You drove the youth to the streets while you hid in the municipality buildings,” Erdoğan said.
He also said the opposition party, however, had a historic habit of the same practice. “You climbed up in your political career while pushing the youth to the streets. You hunted them down and shed crocodile tears later. You did the same to Deniz Gezmiş,” he said, referring to a left-wing activist who was engaged in a string of violent attacks before his execution.
Referring to CHP’s commemoration of Gezmiş after his capture and execution, Erdoğan reminded that the opposition party, however, abstained from voting to stop Gezmiş’s execution. Gezmiş’s execution and the CHP’s mute response to a military memorandum in 1971 were among the causes of the divide in the CHP in the 1970s that ultimately led to the resignation of the longstanding leader, Ismet Inönü.
“We won’t let you exploit the youth of this country to cover up your corruption,” Erdoğan said.
The president said the CHP has already lost public confidence and support. “You were abandoned by the Western actors you relied upon. Your calls are not returned. Nobody cares about you or your lies. You are desperate,” Erdoğan told the opposition, echoing the CHP’s complaints of a lack of support for the protests over Imamoğlu’s arrests.
On Özel’s recent remarks accusing the president of heading a junta, Erdoğan said the CHP should confront its own history first. “You remember their second chair, Ismet Inönü, was 88 years old when he lost to Bülent Ecevit. You know that the CHP lost the government in the first transparent election in 1950 and never won again,” he said.
“Since then, you cling to coups. The CHP equals junta,” he said.
“The CHP has no interest in the country’s issues. Their understanding of freedom is only for themselves and a handful of elites. We witnessed what happened last week and followed it with great attention. They pressured artists, media organizations and local companies to stay silent and not make any statements (about the arrest of Imamoğlu). They set upon a lynch mob on people who supported them for years, just because they did not speak out. This is barbarism. They did this when they had no hope of power; imagine what they would have done without authority. I say it openly: They will destroy everything in their path. Yet, they will get nowhere with riots or boycotts. The days when you could take over the streets with anarchy are behind us. The days when you could paralyze trade and production are in the past. The days when you could control artists and the media are history,” he added.
Terror-free Türkiye
Erdoğan also briefly commented on the terror-free Türkiye initiative launched by government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, stressing it was their priority and they hoped it would have a good outcome. Erdoğan confirmed that he would receive a delegation from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) on Thursday “to reaffirm our will for the terror-free Türkiye goal.”
The DEM Party acted as a messenger between Parliament and Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the PKK terrorist group. Öcalan, jailed in an island prison near Istanbul, made a call in February to the group to lay down arms and dissolve after Bahçeli launched the process in 2024. Since then, the DEM Party has held talks with several parties, including the AK Party, to discuss the progress of the initiative.