İBB President Ekrem İmamoğlu, who completed his 4 years in office, told the public what he has brought to Istanbul in 4 years at the meeting he held at the Haliç Congress Center on the anniversary of the 23 June 2019 elections.
İmamoğlu, the name that lit the fire of “change” in the CHP after the election, said, “Despair and despair are dragging Turkey towards an authoritarianism without opposition. We know from world examples that democracies where the opposition is ineffective and weak cannot survive. In regimes without opposition, citizens are left to the mercy of the rulers. “Society expects a fundamental change from us. If we cannot realize this change, we cannot meet the expectations of the citizens, nor can we protect our positions,” he said.
The headlines from İmamoğlu’s statements are as follows; “Unfortunately, as we enter the 100th anniversary of our republic, the idea of government based on national will has weakened, the polarization between social segments has deepened, and trust in justice is exhausted. As such, our country is far from the democratic world. As opposition components, at a time when the 21-year rule was at its weakest. We lost both the Assembly and the Presidential elections. We could not respond to the demands of the citizens for change. We could not create confidence and hope that would change the government. The picture we are in today is just an illusion. vote It’s not a defeat chart.
If this picture continues, there will be no chance of success in the upcoming local elections. Getting the Turkish opposition out of here depends on the CHP’s determined will to change. It is the most urgent and vital need to rebuild ourselves, our party, the opposition as a whole. It is not enough to just change our showcase and discourse. We must update our ideological political line with the universal principles of social democracy, society’s current demands for freedom, justice and equality, and the needs of the time.
We should rejuvenate our organization by opening the CHP to the community. In-party democracy should be our indispensable principle. We have to change. Every minute we resist change, the distance between us and the society widens. The renewal to be experienced in the opposition is also the key to the establishment of a new alliance architecture. Society expects a renewal and transformation from the opposition in general. It is a necessity for new alliances to renew confidence in the society and keep the hope of power alive and energetic.
An opposition that cannot change or transform cannot change the government either. In order to bring democracy to the country, we must first change ourselves. In the last century, history has assigned the CHP the role of leading Turkey to become a modern and powerful state. Time now imposes on us the responsibility of building a stronger democracy through the hands of society. We cannot escape this task, we will not run away. I would like to thank you and all my fellow countrymen for making the change in Istanbul and supporting it with ever-increasing support for 4 years. Istanbul has changed with your support, will and effort. It is my greatest honor to be a manager worthy of you, this unique city, and Atatürk, who said, “Those who set out to never stop never tire.”
