Özel to Erdoğan: “You are a local dictator. You will leave as you came.”

Turkish opposition CHP leader Özel addressed 2 million people in İzmir at the May 19 rally, telling Erdoğan: “You are not a global leader, you are a local dictator. You will leave as you came”. Özel declared that they will continue their protest until “İmamoğlu and political prisoners” are released. The next rally is scheduled for May 21 in Pendik, İstanbul. (Photo: CHP)

“You are not a global leader, you are a local dictator,” Turkish main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel said to President Tayyip Erdoğan at a rally in İzmir on May 19, adding, “You will leave the way you came in.” Addressing nearly two million people on the 106th anniversary of the beginning of the Turkish War of Liberation, Özel claimed that Erdoğan had the Metropolitan Mayor of İstanbul, and CHP’s Presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, imprisoned because he was afraid of being defeated.
– “We know that there are no two people you can trust, let alone 2 million people, that everyone is talking about what comes after you, that the calculations are made differently in the AK Party, that the rudder of power has been lost to others. I am calling out to you from here, turn back from the coup, return to democracy.
– You say, “I came by election, but I will not go by election”. Don’t be stubborn with this nation anymore. You came with the ballot box, and you will leave with the ballot box. The nation will decide, and you will eventually leave as you came.”

“You are a local dictator.”

CHP leader also criticized Erdoğan’s foreign policy at his İzmir rally, accusing him of being a local dictator despite his claim of being a global leader:
– “You keep saying ‘my friend Trump’. (If) You are Trump’s friend, but Trump’s real friend is Netanyahu, the murderer of Palestinians. How can you not speak out against Netanyahu?
– “Now he (Erdoğan) has made a deal with an agency. That agency is trying to make him call himself a ‘global leader’. He says, ‘If anyone solves it, Erdoğan will solve it’. (…) Instead of recognizing the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Turkic Republics of Central Asia have recognized Southern (Greek) Cyprus. Is this a solution?
– “I am saying this from here, looking Erdoğan in the eye. You are not a global leader, you are a local dictator, autocrat, one man. Local dictators should be afraid of this nation. Let the cowards who throw their opponents in jail be afraid of this nation. Be sure that you will be defeated.”

“Seizing power is a must.”

Speaking for more than an hour, Özel said, “Nothing can stand in the way of the flow of history. (Sizing) Power is a must,” he said, adding that they will continue their protests until they reach their goals.
– “They (the government) say, ‘Will you stop?’ They say, ‘Will you finish?’ We will never stop, we will never finish. Mayor Ekrem, his colleagues, we will go from square to square, action to action, until the political prisoners are released. He (Erdoğan) will bring the ballot box.
– “We are full of self-confidence. We do politics in the nation, not in the shadow of Trump. We trust you, our nation, not the imperialists. (…) We will not let this nation be crushed by coup plotters, mandate holders, and tutelage. We will not crush this nation into poverty.”
Özel announced that he will hold his next rally, “The Nation Possesses Its Will,” on Thursday, May 21, in Istanbul’s Pendik district.

Government reaction

Ömer Çelik, the spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) reacted to Özel calling Erdoğan “not a global leader but a local dictator”. Saying that Erdoğan was called a dictator by the European far right, Çelik claimed that Özel, who “could not even be a local leader”, was acting like a spokesperson of the European far right.