Strange things have started happening in Türkiye. The elected chairman of the opposition party CHP (Republican People’s Party), Özgür Özel, was removed from office by a court decision and replaced by the previous chairman, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. The reason is that delegates were bought with money during the elections in which Özgür Özel became chairman. It is alleged that this bribery was supported by the then-Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and given to delegates by this municipality and other CHP-controlled municipalities.
In countries like Turkey, which have remained somewhat like the Middle East, such shady dealings have always existed, and all parties resort to the same method. Buying delegates and then using them to get elected chairman is one of the most common practices in politics. Therefore, it’s never possible to defeat an elected chairman because they bring in their own cadre.
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu was the chairman during the elections he lost, and it was an expected defeat, but the main reason for this defeat was the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu. Imamoğlu was the man behind Özgür Özel, and the delegates actually voted for Ekrem İmamoğlu, not Özgür Özel.
Imamoğlu, who defeated the ruling AKP party in three local elections, became a target of Erdoğan when he announced his candidacy for president and was eventually sent to prison on charges of theft, corruption, and forming a criminal gang. The trial is still ongoing.
Supporters of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who lost the party leadership, appealed to the court, claiming that the delegates were bought with money. The court accepted the allegations, removed the current leader Özgür Özel from his position, and reappointed Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu as the party leader.
CHP members, the public who would vote for this party, and the CHP media all called this a “coup against democracy,” but they never responded to this:
Nearly 20 CHP mayors are in prison on corruption charges. There are allegations and confessions that Özgür Özel appointed those involved in corruption and his close friends to important positions, and specifically that he received $1 million to nominate Antalya Mayor Muhittin Böcek as a mayoral candidate. Özgür Özel, of course, denies these allegations. After all, someone at the level of party leader wouldn’t say, “Yes, I committed corruption, I took bribes.”
In Turkey, the AKP has its own media. Because the AKP and Erdoğan are in power, 95% of the media is under their control. The remaining 5% belongs to the CHP. CHP media receives money from this party, and they admit to receiving it for broadcasting group meetings live. A characteristic of the AKP media is that it receives and is funded not from Tayyip Erdoğan and the party, but from state-owned institutions in exchange for advertising.
**CRYING CHP MEMBERS**
There’s a strange characteristic of the public in Turkey who are close to political parties. They see party leaders as prophets. They perceive politics not as serving them, but as being at the service of politics. They bring politicians to power, giving them seats and money, but they only complain about their leaders.
They focus on and criticize the mistakes of rival parties, not their own party and leaders. That’s why politicians are always rich, and they are always poor.
Recep Re