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Özgür Özel calls on citizens to join the NEW Party: “No one should watch this story from the outside”
🇹🇷 Turkey /Elections & Politics

Özgür Özel calls on citizens to join the NEW Party: “No one should watch this story from the outside”

From Cumhuriyet · () Turkish

Translated from Turkish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • NEW Party leader Özgür Özel chaired the party’s first meeting of provincial leaders at its new headquarters.
  • Özel said the party belonged to the people and described its creation as the beginning of a new approach to Turkish politics.
  • He invited all citizens to help write what he called a new chapter in Turkey’s history.

Özgür Özel used the opening of the NEW Party’s first provincial leaders’ meeting to make a direct appeal to citizens: “No one should watch this story from the outside.” He said Turkey was writing a new history and invited the entire nation to take part.

Özel chaired the meeting at the party’s new headquarters, where he welcomed founding provincial leaders and representatives from all 81 provinces. He said they had brought the concerns, hopes and struggles of Anatolia and Thrace to Ankara. The meeting, he added, would set out the NEW Party’s new political approach in Turkey.

No one should watch this story from the outside.

— Özgür ÖzelThe NEW Party leader invited citizens to join the party and participate in what he described as a new political history.

He presented the headquarters as an address, not as the essence of the movement. “The owner of this party is the nation,” Özel said, adding that its title deed was registered to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic. He recalled that on May 24, party members had left buildings, offices and resources behind and walked toward the Grand National Assembly through rain and hail, beginning the creation of a new politics.

The owner of this party is the nation, and its title deed is registered to Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who founded our Republic.

— Özgür ÖzelÖzel described the party as belonging to the public rather than to its officials.

Özel also described an effort to overcome divisions after the party’s recent congress. Provincial leaders who had stood on opposite sides, he said, were brought together under a new understanding that left defeat and permanent separation behind. The party sought to choose the strongest candidates and acted in good faith, he said, even when decisions were imperfect.

He told the provincial leaders that they were the founders of the new party in their regions and urged citizens not to remain spectators. “NEW Party membership is very different from membership in any political party,” he said. “We invite all our people to write this new history together.”

NEW Party membership is very different from membership in any political party. No one should watch this story from the outside.

— Özgür ÖzelHe used the party’s membership appeal to call for broader public participation.
About this summary

Originally published by Cumhuriyet in Turkish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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