“We will win, they will lose, and they can’t accept it,” Turkey’s main opposition leader, Özgür Özel, said on Tuesday at his party’s parliamentary group meeting in Ankara, accusing the government of targeting the Republican People’s Party (CHP) with politically motivated investigations.
He condemned ongoing probes against CHP municipalities and key figures, including İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. He alleged the cases were designed to suppress opposition victories ahead of upcoming elections.
Özel specifically pointed to the government’s Urban Consensus operation, under which lawsuits have been filed against CHP municipalities. “On 28 January, we announced that our presidential candidate would be chosen through primaries. By 10 February, they had already filed a case against our congress. The next day, they launched two more cases against our municipalities using this so-called ‘urban consensus’ pretext,” he said.
He listed further legal actions, including cases against CHP’s İstanbul Provincial Chair Özgür Çelik and the party’s provincial congress. “They have lawsuits against our Istanbul provincial headquarters, our congress, our chair. The only one they haven’t gone after is our cat, Şanslı,” he quipped.
Özel also addressed the government’s handling of the Kurdish question, criticising its approach as a tactic to control political narratives rather than seeking genuine solutions.
“We recognise the existence of the Kurdish question,” he said, rejecting government attempts to frame the debate for political advantage. “The only way to resolve this is through democratisation, not manipulation.”
He called for an inclusive democratic transformation involving all communities. “This is not only a matter for Kurds; Turks, Laz, and Circassians must also unite under a broad democracy package,” he said.
Özel accused the government of using security policies and legal pressure to suppress democratic demands. “Everyone sees how they are trying to shape the agenda using the Kurdish question. We are following these developments with great care and caution. We will not fall into their game,” he said.
Despite the mounting pressure, Özel vowed that CHP would stand firm against what he called judicial and political attacks.
“We did not kneel, we did not lose, we did not surrender—we stood up and resisted,” he said. “This country’s future will not be determined by those who weaponise the judiciary but by the people who stand for democracy.”
