Is it the CHP's liberation from the İmamoğlu occupation?

The process that began with the detention of Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and more than 100 people is a judicial process. Therefore the attitude that should come into play first, as a reflex, is to respect the presumption-of-innocence rights of those subject to investigation, prosecution, detention or trial. Truly, this is a principle I always try to observe. In Turkey we have enough cautionary examples of how the conduct of the judicial process together with the media has gone hand in hand with great, irreparable errors of premature punishment. Our friend Mehmet Metiner has rightly taken up the matter from this side. Applying the presumption of innocence requires that no one set themselves up as a court and declare anyone guilty in advance. For everyone's right not to be stained is precious. But there is another aspect of the presumption of innocence, which also requires that someone accused and tried over various allegations not be declared innocent in advance.

First, from the moment the operation against İmamoğlu and those with him began, there has been a defensive attitude that, on the claim that the operation against him is nothing but a political settling of scores, rejects every accusation against him without taking any of them into consideration, and this, let alone being a defense, with an aggressive attitude accuses, even convicts, the judicial process against İmamoğlu. Yet there are very serious accusations, and as the operation deepens much graver ones are emerging. For a judiciary to turn a blind eye to so many allegations merely because of a person's political position, to remain a passive spectator, shows above all that this judiciary has neglected its essential duty.

Second, even before the matter fell into the judicial process, the news and information that had become common knowledge about corruption, dereliction of duty, inadequacy and lack of merit concerning İmamoğlu and the affiliates of the Metropolitan Municipality was on everyone's lips. On this matter there were already enough rumors to require a judicial process to start on its own, indeed that would have left that judiciary under suspicion had it not, and these events were naturally being discussed by the public, and we were discussing them. From this point on, since more documents and evidence will be laid out, the trial process too cannot be prevented from taking place with public participation.

Third, the great majority of the information, documents and complaints that are the subject of the operation come from people within the CHP itself. That is, the complaints that set the judiciary in motion are information and documents put forward within the municipality itself by people of the same party. For example, footage of a group of people at a law firm emptying bagfuls of money onto a table and counting it with machines had been leaked from the inside, and with simple research it also emerged that these people were connected to figures who could be described as İmamoğlu's black box. Those who leaked this footage published it with additional information and reports that no prosecutor could remain indifferent to. That is, it was said openly that the horizontal and vertical rows of money seen in the photograph came from the owners of construction companies that had won tenders from the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, that is, that these were bribes, and those who made this report were not people from the AK Party; they were people from inside the CHP.

The corruption allegations about the Beşiktaş Municipality and the Beykoz Municipality, which had come up earlier, were likewise reported by people from within the municipality in a report so serious that no judicial process could remain indifferent. When an operation covering the Mayor as well was carried out on those reports, a great deal of detailed information and documents appears to have emerged through confessions given by the mayor himself. This information and these documents step by step created a situation in which the circle was tightening around İmamoğlu.

And then there is a CHP thoroughly muddled by the rumors about the money distributed to delegates at the Congress. Former Chairman Kılıçdaroğlu himself had exposed before everyone's eyes these interventions that savagely meddled with mischief in the Congress process. Not only is this no small accusation, but over time it has also been seen that it is not merely the cheapness of slinging mud at one's unvanquished rival.

Let us recall that most recently the reports about İmamoğlu's diploma also emerged as a move by some against İmamoğlu's rise and the unfair competition he displayed against his rivals within the CHP. Those who first dug up and brought out these reports were not AK Party members either. That İmamoğlu's diploma is 30 years old does not strengthen all the more an acquired right for him. On the contrary, while the statute of limitations may be a reason in terms of criminal law, academically a right unjustly acquired is invalid even if a hundred years have passed. There is of course also an ethical and political dimension to this. Someone who obtained even his own diploma by trickery and sham is expected to conduct all his affairs in this style, and the scene we are witnessing shows exactly this.

Despite this, those who attribute this operation to a political settling of scores are unaware that they have fallen for the perception game of İmamoğlu and his circle. They take refuge in the superstition that having won an election by a large margin against the AK Party about a year ago should have earned him a de facto shield of immunity. Perhaps thanks to this superstition a far more reckless corruption was running wild. However, the operations carried out in some districts of Istanbul showed that the prevailing perception on this would offer no protection at all. Surely on the AK Party side there will be some hesitation out of concern that this necessary operation would be perceived as the AK Party using the judiciary as a weapon against its rivals. Perhaps if it were left to the AK Party or even to Erdoğan, he might have acted a bit more hesitantly. But the footage of corruption, bribery and cooperation with terrorism that has spread out of its own accord has reached dimensions at which remaining hesitant would carry a greater cost. From this point on, not starting this judicial process carried a greater risk in terms of not putting a stop to corruption that had become common knowledge, a danger turning into a security threat for the country.

İmamoğlu's hurried attempt to declare himself a presidential candidate when there are still more than 3 years until the presidential elections can be given no meaning other than creating a new political shield against the tightening circle around him. He must have calculated that this shield would keep the judiciary, which he considers subordinate to the government, from conducting operations against him.

Of course, that all these processes began on the basis of reports and complaints within the CHP is naturally an expression of the discomfort felt within the CHP toward the aggressive hegemonic stance Ekrem İmamoğlu displayed. With his attitude that has mortgaged even the presidential candidacy in advance, İmamoğlu is like an occupying nightmare that has descended on the CHP. It was impossible for there not to be a resistance movement in any party against this occupation, and that is what has happened. The CHP's liberation from the İmamoğlu occupation.