Özel slams security clampdown ahead of NATO summit

ANKARA

Ousted main opposition leader Özgür Özel has criticized extensive security measures imposed before the NATO summit in Ankara and the detention of scores of environmental activities.

“There is a weird state of emergency that shuts down the parliament, the ministries and closes the traffic in many avenues,” Özel said during the weekly parliament meeting of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) in Ankara on June 30.

The government is causing trouble to its own people by imposing excessive security measures for the summit, Özel said, describing all these safeguards as shameful.

“In addition, with the concern of potential protests during the summit, 225 persons were detained and 178 of them are arrested. No body should try to see these things as normal,” he said, claiming that all these people will sure be released after the summit and departure of the U.S. President Donald Trump.

“They arrest volunteers for TEMA (a non-governmental organizational) during a picnic. They arrest journalists, academics and representatives of civil society on the concerns that they would stage protests during the summit,” he stressed.

On the ongoing rift within the CHP triggered by a court ruling reinstated Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu as the chairman of the CHP, Özel vowed that they will “fight until the last moment to retake the party from the appointed leadership.”

However, he signaled that they are also working on plans to create alternative ways to run this political fight and efforts to come to power in the next elections.