An experienced politician of Turkey: "The main problem is not to allow falsification of the results that will come out of the ballot boxes"

An interview of Turan News Agency with Gürsel Tekin, Istanbul MP of the main opposition Republican People's Party, member of the Turkish delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.

"International organizations failed the class in many respects"

Turan: Let's start with domestic politics, then we will move on to the situation of international organizations. There is a table where six parties are united, the chairman of your party went to the United States and came back. You are a politician who always prefers to be among the people. Can you describe the general situation?

Tekin: I want to touch on the realities beyond the tables: currently, the most important problem in Turkey is the economy: unemployment, and deep poverty. Look, I'm not saying "poverty", I'm saying "deep poverty". I have a lot of information on this. I am a politician who prepared the "Migration Map" within Turkey.

Turan: We know about it.

Tekin: Currently, 4,342 families from different regions of Istanbul are waiting in line to go to their villages. During the last 1.5-2 years, 10 thousand families left Istanbul. As they could not withstand the hunger and poverty here, they returned to their native villages. There is also another migration: those who get rich through politics also go to other regions. They also try to hide in rich neighborhoods, unable to bear the miserable situation in the poor neighborhoods where they were born and raised.

Turan: Do you mean politicians who get rich by using power?

Tekin: Of course. When their social status changes in the neighborhoods where they were born and grew up, they inevitably move to the rich neighborhoods of Istanbul. If they stay in the poor neighborhoods, their wealth will be visible at that moment, so they go to the rich areas to hide it. Currently, there is a migration between the poor and the rich. Politicians should look here; otherwise, there is no point in looking at other things. Turkish voters are like philosophers. No country in the world is discussing politics 365 days a year. Turkey is the only country where politics is talked about every day. As a member of the OSCE PA, I have been an election observer in many countries. In those countries, it is impossible to notice whether the election has been held or not; however, in Turkey, when one goes to a funeral home, the first issue discussed is the state of politics. There are huge problems in the country, and the only way to overcome them is to strengthen the dialogue with the citizens as much as possible. It is not enough to talk with citizens, it is necessary to learn their opinions about the issues that interest them, to give them hope. If you bring the world's most powerful advertisers, he cannot make these sentences, these sentences can only and only come out of the mouths of citizens (he opens his phone and has me listened to excerpts from about 20 videos he heard from voters who voted for the ruling party so far. AKP voters show angry reactions). All of these are citizens who voted for the AKP, you can see how strongly they protested. I have traveled 90 thousand km to meet these people face to face.

Turan: I don't know any other politician who deals with these things in this way.

Tekin: They can't do it. I mapped the electorate. I can get all the information from the neighborhood mukhtars, so everything is correct. Our mukhtars are the representatives of our nation. I don’t mean the deputies appointed by lottery, who do not know about the people, I work with the mukhtars. They were chosen by the will of the nation and give me all the information. And without discriminating against any political party. Therefore, a politician should be on the streets, he should be able to talk to citizens face to face, then it is possible to achieve success. Television channels have no credibility among the people, newspapers have no credibility. When the reporter of the Japanese newspaper interviewed me, he said that the newspaper sold 10 million per day. Total sales in Turkey are 500,000 units, 300,000 units go to government bodies, and 200,000 units are bought by pensioners. The only way to overcome this hunger and poverty in the country is to unite the opposition and create a direct dialogue with the voters. The most important problem is that the vote of our nation is not guaranteed...

Turan: So there could be falsification, right?

Tekin: The new election law is actually the law of winning the election by all means. A second law that controls social media prohibits talking about illegal activities that may occur on election day. In order to hold the election legally, the help of 600,000 people is needed, and the opposition bloc must be able to do this. They talk nonsense on TV, even if you have 1 million lawyers instead of 50,000, it is useless. What will the lawyers do if the signed protocols did not come from the people standing in front of the ballot boxes? Let 600,000 people bring the results from the ballot boxes officially, the opposition will win.

Turan: Does your party know this?

Tekin: The opposition bloc of six parties also knows this, and I know that they have started to consolidate 600,000 people.

Turan: That is, you say that the voters will support you, but the most important thing is to record the results from the ballot boxes correctly in the minutes.

Tekin: Our nation has decided to change this government. If the nation has made this decision, it cannot be changed. Therefore, the next task is to protect the ballot boxes.

Turan: The activity of international organizations has been under fire for years. After Russia's attack on Ukraine, it was laid bare in front of the eyes. As one of Turkey's most experienced politicians, what do you think about this? We are having this conversation during a short break at the OSCE meeting.

Tekin: Unfortunately, international organizations failed the class in many respects. We will talk more about this later.