Canan Kaftancıoğlu replies to the accusations against her and Kocasakal

Cemal Canpolat, addressing the handing-over ceremony held at the CHP Istanbul Provincial
Chair’s Office in Şişhane said that he was behind Canan Kaftancıoğlu until the end. Canpolat,
noting, “Our country is under a reactionary siege. We do not even have one second to
squabble with one another,” said, “The time has finally come to save us and those who are
not like us from international capital.”

“THEY ARE AFRAID OF MY PRESENCE IN MALE-DOMINATED POLITICS
WITH MY IDENTITY AS A WOMAN”

Canan Kaftancıoğlu, taking the rostrum after having assumed the post, thanked Cemal
Canpolat and his team and continued as follows:

“We are starting the big Istanbul march. We are Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s citizens, comrades
and soldiers, following in his wake. We will rise up from 39 sub-provinces. They see this. We
are starting the rights, law and justice march that our General Chair started. This is why they
are afraid. They are trying to use me to shape the CHP. The CHP was formed in struggle
against imperialism.

I am one of your sisters who was born in Ordu's Mesudiye sub-province, rich in diversity. We
will in unison keep the city of equality, Istanbul, alive. We will unmask those who are
betraying the city. We will in unison construct an Istanbul that favours social justice.
Well, why are they afraid? They are afraid of my presence in male-dominated politics with
my identity as a woman, because women stand firm and resist until the end. It is women who
will put an end to the organised evil we are experiencing today. There is discomfort over my
ideological stance that does not alter to fit the conditions of the day. They came in from
Istanbul and they will go out from Istanbul. This is what they are afraid of.”

Kaftancıoğlu, holding a press conference into allegations about her following the ceremony,
spoke about the mealtime photograph her husband posted.

Kaftancıoğlu, noting the embarrassment she felt at having to make a press statement about
her own personal life, commented, “The political struggle I have stood in and engaged in is
not about who eats or drinks or believes what, but what people use in the struggle for rights
and freedoms. There is a photograph that my dear husband posted. Shamed as I am to bring it
up, I will draw your attention to one detail. From the layout of the knife and fork there is
somebody opposite them. His friend from abroad. The father of my husband, who posted this
image, was targeted two days before being murdered by a party general chair. And I leave it
to you to judge the turning into a target before the public at large of a post by his son that
would give us some amusement on this earth. I consider this to be shameful. This being
targeted by the AKP general chair shows the point to which discriminatory politics has come.
Had interest been shown in the meat soldiers eat, Turkey would not have come to this state.
For as long as my husband is not deprived of what is his by rights, nothing else matters at
all.”

ACTIVIST PHOTOGRAPH

Kaftancıoğlu commented as follows on the Tweet sent by her husband in which she was
likened to an activist, “My somewhat high-spirited social media exchanges with my dear
husband are famous. The nice side to this ugly attack is my being likened to someone half my
age. It is pretty obviously not me and is a joke. We have entered a political climate in Turkey
in which salvation is sought through this. I do not know who or where this person is. I also
point out that this person’s rights have been usurped through her being exposed.”
Kaftancıoğlu, showing the Tweet in which her child was targeted, said, “I am fighting so this
country’s children do not die. They are targeting me. This country’s children are innocent.
Yasin Börü is also innocent.”
Kaftancıoğlu said in turn with reference to the photograph in which she appears along with
Selahattin Demirtaş, “I feel absolutely no discomfort. I send greetings from here to HDP Co-
Chair Selahattin Demirtaş.”

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE POST

Kaftancıoğlu, saying that she said on the night of the coup in a Tweet she posted, “Take a
nice dose of ill treatment,” asked, “Did I put that wrong?”
She said with regard to the Armenian Genocide, “I, as a rights advocate in this land, think
you cannot, by saying there are or are not certain problems, solve them as concepts. I think
they cannot be solved by, as is claimed, saying there was or was not a genocide. The name of
the march I took part in was the Armenian Genocide March. I made a post with reference to
that. We live in a country in which the mob fury culture is so prevalent. This is the thing that
we all need to unite in opposing. They have targeted us with fake Tweets. Despite not being
true, posts that aid organised evil are out there.”
Kaftancıoğlu said about the investigation that had been launched into her, “Just as Ahmet Şık
is behind bars as a terrorist, it also gives me pride.”

REPLY TO ÜMİT KOCASAKAL

Kaftancıoğlu also responded implicitly to criticism by CHP General Chair candidate Ümit
Kocasakal, by saying, “Those who feel discomfort at the words ‘We are Mustafa Kemal’s
soldiers’ and have problems with the unitary structure cannot engage in politics in Atatürk’s
party.”

Kaftancıoğlu remarked, “While even finding it shameful to repeat it, I, as one who has
embraced and lives out Mustafa Kemal's values, have not acted like the Wardrobe
Ataturkists. The slogan, ‘We are Mustafa Kemal’s soldiers’ seems militarist to me. I leave it
for my organisation to judge them, like the ‘Kenan Evren Ataturkists’, only using it devoid of
content. If I have become a woman province chair in the party Mustafa Kemal established,
Atatürk played a part in this.”