İYİ Parti Chairman Müsavat Dervişoğlu delivered a sharp condemnation of President Erdoğan, stating, ”Today, the President gathered the nation before their screens, announcing he would deliver a historic speech. He spoke of fires in Turkey’s villages, of exiles, of village evacuations, and of white Toros vehicles. As our party’s representative, you serve in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, do you not, professor? Following this speech by the President, could a member of parliament from a foreign nation use these very sentences in the European Parliament or the United Nations Council to accuse Turkey? Could it lead to Turkey being interrogated? Yes… Hey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, since you’ve said this, if you have no shame, you might as well embrace the Armenian theses. There is no difference between what you’ve said and the Armenian claims. For the President of the Republic of Turkey to be an instrument in such a matter is profoundly troubling for Müsavat Dervişoğlu, as someone who holds the identity of the Republic of Turkey. You think you are governing this state, but do you still imagine you are selling water in Kasımpaşa? You need to come to your senses,” he remarked.
Following a series of visits in Edirne, İYİ Parti Chairman Müsavat Dervişoğlu attended his party’s Extended Provincial Council meeting. In his address, Dervişoğlu stated, in summary:
”They think the organization is finished just because 15 women and 15 men laid down their arms. Yet, the legal demands persist. Soon, everyone will be saying, ‘We gave the Republic of Turkey whatever they wanted,’ you remember that, don’t you? Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used this same line about Fethullah Gülen, admitting he gave them whatever they desired. Now, if he attempts to give this group whatever they want, this nation will not vote for them. This nation will hold them accountable. The PKK is now making demands of us, demands that have no legal or constitutional basis. To meet their requests and expectations, the constitution must be changed, and new legal regulations are needed. Our government is already conceding this, admitting they need to discuss those legal arrangements. Shame on you; if you set out on a path to satisfy the needs of a terrorist organization by placing the blame on the Turkish Grand National Assembly and seeking cover through a commission established there, the Turkish nation will never, ever permit it. While the İYİ Parti exists, you can form commissions, but you will never achieve results. I will expose all your actions, all the betrayals you have enacted, before the great nation.
”THE LEADERS OF THE ORGANIZATION ARE MORE CONSCIOUS THAN THE LEADERS OF THE STATE, I SWEAR”
“Now, let’s address the matter of a new alliance. This system necessitates alliances. Why? To eliminate the risk of election thresholds and to ensure presidential candidates secure the 50 percent plus one vote. The system can force you into undesirable alliances with political parties you do not want. Don’t now assume Dervişoğlu is going to form an alliance. Our alliance is with the nation. We will explain ourselves to the people, and if the nation appreciates us and chooses us, we will come to power and overcome the problems facing Turkey with our own cadres. Let no one misinterpret my words, but to escape this tyrannical system, a unified opposition approach requiring cooperation may sometimes be necessary. What happened in the last election? They accused all of us of partnering with the HDP, as it was then called. They alleged that the HDP was ‘under the table,’ who did? The components of the Cumhur İttifakı: the AKP, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the MHP, and Devlet Bahçeli. They said, ‘HDP is under the table’… Now, the party that is an extension of the HDP has become the apple of both Tayyip Erdoğan’s and Devlet Bahçeli’s eye, alongside the PKK and Abdullah Öcalan. May God set you right. The gentleman asked Abdullah Öcalan to ‘send a founder,’ didn’t he? He should have responded in kind, and he did, saying, ‘After Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the greatest statesman is Devlet Bahçeli.’ If we didn’t know better, we’d believe it. The President has now announced it: ‘AK Party, the Nationalist Movement Party, and DEM have laid the foundation for a new alliance.’ Pervin Buldan immediately said, ‘We are partners in this project and will not interfere in other matters.’ I swear, the people running the organization are more conscious than those running the state. May God help this country.”
”IN OUR EYES, ABDULLAH ÖCALAN IS A TERRORIST AND THE MURDERER OF OUR CHILDREN”
“For the last 6-7 years, the ruling party, together with Mr. Devlet Bahçeli, has been managing the public perception of who is a terrorist and who is not. They make a decision, and with the Communications Directorate behind them, having seized control of the media, the commentators on television and the columnists in newspapers treat whomever these two gentlemen want as a terrorist. Eventually, someone even called me a ‘fake nationalist terrorist’ on television. I pose a question to them from here: We call Abdullah Öcalan a terrorist and DEM a political extension of the PKK, and this bothers them. Since they have formed an alliance, may God increase their affection for each other, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Mr. Devlet Bahçeli’s affection for DEM. Let them ask the DEM co-chairs: is Abdullah Öcalan a terrorist? Is the PKK a terrorist organization? If they can ask this question and get the answer, ‘Yes, Abdullah Öcalan is a terrorist, and the PKK is a terrorist organization that murdered our children,’ then I say we can talk with them. We can speak with them if they accept the facts, but for that to happen, I know it would take a Noah’s Flood. We know both of them quite well; their past actions are a guarantee of their future ones. If a person’s past does not vouch for them, we cannot vouch for their future.
In our view, Abdullah Öcalan is a terrorist who is the killer of our children. Furthermore, for people who call DEM, the political extension of that terrorist organization, their ‘partner,’ it constitutes a direct acceptance that Abdullah Öcalan is not a terrorist. This means it is impossible for us to ever align politically not just with them, but with anyone who does this. Look, I used to say that if there were a national issue, we would sit and talk with them. From now on, anyone who cannot call Abdullah Öcalan a terrorist and the PKK a terrorist organization, and who seeks solutions and a path forward with them and their political extensions, can no longer be an interlocutor for the İYİ Parti in Turkish politics.
Today, something terrible happened, may God not let it befall my enemy. The President appeared today, gathering the nation before their screens for a historic speech. He mentioned that there were fires in Turkey’s villages, exiles, village evacuations, and white Toros vehicles. You serve in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe as our party’s representative, don’t you, professor? Based on the President’s speech, could a parliamentarian from a foreign country use these sentences in the European Parliament or the United Nations Council to accuse Turkey? Could it lead to Turkey being questioned? Yes…
What can I say now? What should I tell you, hey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan? Since you said this, if you feel no shame, you might as well endorse the Armenian theses. There is no difference between what you said and the Armenian claims. Do you think you are governing this state? Do you still think you’re just selling water in Kasımpaşa? Come to your senses. The danger is immense, but our side is clear: We will stand with the Republic. We will not leave Turkey without its Republic, and we will defend the unitary state structure to the very end.
Our national state character and our national identity are the guarantees of our existence in this geography. We will continue our journey with a consciousness of history. We are aware that we have pitched our tent on the path of hyenas. Under the difficult conditions Turkey faces, and taking regional geopolitics into account, we will implement the most accurate solution and the most correct roadmap with the true state mind and will of the great Turkish nation.”