09/10/2023 | Writer: Damla Umut Uzun
“They want to put the human rights of LGBT individuals against the institution of family and put us there. What can be done in such situations? A counter-hegemonic situation is created. When you withdraw from that area, the government identifies that area."
CHP’s 38th Ordinary Istanbul Provincial Congress, where the Istanbul Provincial Chairman and 196 congress delegates to be determined, was held at the Haliç Congress Center on 9 October.
The congress, in which former Provincial Mayor Cemal Canpolat, who had the support of the headquarters, and Özgür Çelik, who had the support of those advocating change in the party, including Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and CHP Chairman candidate Özgür Özel, competed, was concluded.
According to the official statement; Özgür Çelik received 342 votes and Cemal Canpolat received 310 votes. Çelik became the CHP Istanbul Provincial Chairman with a difference of 32 votes.
Speaking at the congress, presidential candidate İlhan Cihaner criticized his party's silence on LGBTI+ rights:
“The issue of immunity, they defended it passionately there too. Why? Because Turkish society was conservative and we had to do politics within the mines that the AKP laid out around us. What were those mines? First, the Kurdish issue, if you go there they will call you a separatist. Secondly, the issue of secularism, there is so little left in the name of secularism in this country that all of our friends are responsible for these policies. Now they are adding a new mine around us, they want to put the human rights of LGBT individuals against the institution of family and trap us there. What can be done in such situations? A counter-hegemonic situation is created. When you withdraw from that area, the government determines that area, so Turkish society shifted to the right as it was. The responsibility for this lies with us, those who manage the CHP, or more precisely, those sitting in the front; (pointing to the balcony with his hand) It's not your fault, I don't see you defeated. What is really defeated is the political attitudes, the political madness of these front row party elites."
Tags: human rights
