“We Will Not Surrender”

Double Anniversary at Cumhuriyet Square

The CHP Bornova District Organization celebrated both the 103rd anniversary of İzmir’s liberation and the 102nd anniversary of CHP’s founding with a ceremony at Bornova Cumhuriyet Square. District Chair Ertürk Çapın and Bornova Mayor Ömer Eşki described the appointment of a trustee to the İstanbul Provincial Presidency as a “coup attempt” and emphasized that CHP would never surrender. Their speeches highlighted strong support for Party Chair Özgür Özel and presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu.

The ceremony began with CHP Bornova District Chair, Lawyer Ertürk Çapın, laying a wreath at the Atatürk Monument. After a moment of silence and the national anthem, party members and many citizens gathered to hear speeches from Ertürk Çapın and Bornova Mayor Ömer Eşki.

Ertürk Çapın: “This Party Cannot Be Taken Over”
CHP Bornova District Chair Ertürk Çapın said:
“I congratulate the 103rd anniversary of our beautiful İzmir’s liberation and the 102nd anniversary of the founding of the CHP, the party of liberation and foundation, on behalf of my district organization. Unfortunately, in our 102nd year, we cannot smile. Yesterday, the state was set against Atatürk’s party, the very party that founded this state. They attacked us with 5,000 police officers, water cannons, shields, and tear gas. They even brought along a traitor and attacked our party headquarters like an occupying force. Everyone saw the police raid on our provincial building with 5,000 officers. Is this how you plan to take power?”

He continued by saying that there was an attempt to design CHP into a “controlled opposition party”:
“This party was founded on battlefields, and it has 2 million members. How can you think of taking it over? We will not back down, we will not surrender. Sooner or later, the ballot box will come, and we will hold them accountable—not in their manipulated justice system, but in fair courts that guarantee rights for everyone. Just as our ancestors resisted imperialists a century ago, we will continue to resist today. We will not surrender. Happy anniversary of our party’s founding and İzmir’s liberation.”

Ömer Eşki: “There Is a Coup Attempt Against CHP”
Bornova Mayor Ömer Eşki said in his speech:
“Today is 9 September, İzmir’s birthday. It is the day Mustafa Kemal and the children of Anatolia, fighting with the determination for liberation, reunited with İzmir. It is the day in history when the Turkish nation declared it would never compromise on independence, that it would live freely on this land forever, and that under the crescent and star flag its will would last eternally.

Yesterday, there was a coup attempt against our Provincial Presidency in İstanbul. Just as the people’s will was attacked on July 15, just as the nation’s will was attacked on September 12, yesterday the will of society and of the CHP was attacked. This party is, above all, the party that founded the Republic. The party that founded the Republic knows how to govern itself.

Those who fall into this illusion will be defeated again, just as they were in the March 31 elections, just as they were brought down by the people. In the first Congress and in the first elections to come, the will of the people will give Turkey and the CHP what they need. Under the leadership of Özgür Özel, the Republic of Turkey will experience its second founding in the next general elections.”