Turkey’s opposition leader, head of the Republican People’s Party, Ozgur Ozil, renewed his determination to continue the struggle to remove President Recep Tayyip and his government through the ballot boxes. While Erdogan accused the opposition of continuing to seek support from the West, “without caring about their country’s reputation.”
The branch of the Republican People’s Party, the largest Turkish opposition party, in Brussels, organized a massive gathering on Sunday, as part of the “The People Defend Their Will” rallies, which were launched after the arrest of the mayor of Istanbul, the party’s presidential candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, on March 19.
Party leader Ozgur Ozil said in a speech during the rally: “We came to defend our presidential candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, who has been imprisoned without indictment for 207 days. And about the rest of the mayors elected from our party, all the way to all the political prisoners in Turkey, including the two co-chairs of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, and everyone who was imprisoned because of their beliefs.
Controversy over legitimacy
Ozil added: “The Justice and Development Party government has now begun working for US President Donald Trump. Erdogan is now searching for legitimacy that he does not find at home, and that he does not find in Europe or the world, at the gates of the White House and in the Oval Office. He lost the nation’s support, and made everything in the country a negotiating card.”
Ozil pledged to continue the struggle and rallies in the squares until the ballot boxes are placed before the people, and Erdogan and his government are overthrown, saying: “Let everyone know that ending exile, building Turkey without a ban, and reaching Europe without a visa for young people, is a matter of choosing at the ballot box.”
During the rally, messages of solidarity with İmamoğlu and the detained mayors in Türkiye were read, from the mayors of Rome, Amsterdam, Budapest, Thessaloniki, Cologne and Frankfurt, among others. Brussels Mayor Philippe Close also addressed the gathering via video message.
In an immediate reaction to the Republican People’s Party rally in Brussels, Erdogan criticized the party, saying: “We were unable to teach the opposition how to stand firmly in the face of the West. We could not explain to these gentlemen that whatever they do inside the country, when they go abroad they must act as parties representing Türkiye.”
Erdogan added, in a speech during an event in the city of Trabzon in the Black Sea region in northern Turkey: “At any stage of our political life, we were not among those who bowed or fluctuated, nor were we among those who said one thing inside the country and another thing outside it. Rather, we always stood firm in the economy, trade, and defense, working with all our might to develop our country’s gains.”
National alliance
On the other hand, signs appeared of the formation of a “national alliance” between the “Good” party, headed by Musawat Dervişoğlu, and the “Victory” party, headed by Umit Ozdag, in response to the efforts of the “People’s Alliance” (the Justice and Development Party and the National Movement) to try to form an alliance with the pro-Kurdish “Peoples’ Democracy and Equality” party, through negotiations with the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. Prisoner Abdullah Ocalan.
Ozdag, who had previously split from the “Good” Party due to disagreements with its former leader, Meral Aksener, said that the “People’s Alliance” is fading, and who will gain from this rapprochement is the “Democracy and Equality for Peoples” party, which will increase its votes as it did in 2015, during the previous negotiations with Ocalan, while the “Justice and Development” parties and the “Nationalist Movement Party” will witness a decline. Tragic in their voices.
He continued: “In this atmosphere, there is an opportunity for the nationalists. We have to plan not only for assuming power, but also for what we will do after assuming it.”
Dervishoglu commented: “They will not be able to turn Turkish nationalists against each other. Those currently in power will collapse and be crushed one day. We have never encountered problems resulting from differences of opinion; Rather, we faced some problems resulting from our path or approach. Since I joined the organizational leadership of the (Gayyid) Party, I have always defended the unity of the Turkish nation, and spoke about the unity and solidarity of Turkish nationalists, and I continue to do so.
