Main opposition leader Özgür Özel rampaged against the government’s economic policies and the continued imprisonment of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu during a rally in the western city of Denizli on Jan. 11.
The Republican People's Party (CHP) has maintained a schedule of two rallies per week since the March arrest of İmamoğlu, its presumptive presidential candidate. The strategy involves holding one event in an Istanbul district and another in a rotating province, with Özel personally leading the demonstrations.
"This system, which ignores its citizens, oppresses the poor, drives already struggling producers into bankruptcy and only protects its cronies, is the dark order of the [ruling] AKP," Özel told a crowd in Denizli.
"We will absolutely, truly dismantle the AKP's dark order, which takes from the poor, not the rich; which ignores the poor and favors the rich; which takes 88 percent of taxes from the poor and only 11 percent from the rich."
Though national elections are not scheduled until 2028, the CHP is using these rallies to build momentum for an earlier vote.
"We will close one era and open another," Özel said. "I promise you, with the first election to be held, the era of the ministers' children will end, and the era of the nation's children will begin."
The rally also featured a message from İmamoğlu, read via a letter sent from prison. The ousted mayor dismissed the charges against him as politically motivated.
"Those who think they can discredit us in the eyes of the nation with lies and slanders have already been condemned in the conscience of the nation," he said.
"They are at the end of the road, but we are at the beginning. That’s why they are running away from the ballot box and the people; while we are running towards the ballot box and the people."
