Zafer Party leader Ümit Özdağ arrested
Zafer Party leader Ümit Özdağ was arrested by the judge to whom he was referred on charges of “public incitement to hatred and hostility”.
Zafer Party leader Ümit Özdağ was arrested in Ankara within the scope of the investigation initiated against him due to “insulting the President” and he was brought to Istanbul in the morning of 21st of January 2025. The prosecutor's statement of Ümit Özdağ was completed.
Özdağ was sent to the Criminal Judgeship of Peace for arrest on the charge of 'public incitement to hatred and hostility'. Zafer Party leader Ümit Özdağ was arrested by the judge to whom he was referred on charges of “public incitement to hatred and hostility”.
An official investigation was initiated by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office against Özdağ for the statements he made about AKP leader and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at his party's provincial heads consultation meeting held on January 19.
Özdağ, who was detained in Ankara within the scope of the investigation, was brought to Istanbul in the morning.
SENT TO SILIVRI
Following the arrest order, Zafer Party made a press release stating that “Our leader Prof. Dr. Ümit Özdağ will be transferred to Metris Prison.” However, it was announced that Özdağ was delivered to Marmara Penitentiary Institution (Silivri).
PARTY MEMBERS GATHERED IN FRONT OF THE POLICE STATION
The investigation against Özdağ was extended to the crime of “inciting the public to hatred and hostility” and he was taken to Istanbul Security Directorate.
Party members who wanted to show support for Özdağ, the leader of the Zafer Party, gathered in front of the Istanbul Security Directorate and shouted slogans.
TENSION IN FRONT OF THE COURTHOUSE
After Zafer Party leader Ümit Özdağ was sent to a judge for arrest, there was tension between lawyers and officers inside the courthouse. In front of the courthouse, there was a brawl between the party members and the officials who could not enter the courthouse because they could not pass the iron barriers. Slogans of “Down with tyranny, long live freedom” were chanted.
Zafer Party leader Ümit Özdağ, whose prosecutor's statement was completed in the evening at the Istanbul Courthouse, where he arrived at noon, was referred to the Criminal Judgeship of Peace on Duty with a request for arrest on charges of “public incitement to hatred and hostility”. In the corridors of the courthouse when the referral decision was announced, Özdağ's lawyers and the officials had an argument. While the argument turned into a scuffle, things calmed down after a while.
BRAWL ON THE STAIRS
Tension then broke out in front of the courthouse. Zafer Party's Bartu Soral addressed the officials and asked them to let in the party members waiting outside. In the meantime, there was a short-lasting brawl on the stairs in front of the door. Slogans were chanted “Down with tyranny, long live freedom”. The situation calmed down after Bartu Soral talked to the security officers. The party members outside were taken inside and the door barrier was shut again.
ÖZDAĞ'S STATEMENT TO THE PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE REVEALED
Zafer Party leader Ümit Özdağ's statement to the prosecutor's office was revealed:
The words I said in reference to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the content of the speech I made on January 19, 2025, are related to Erdoğan's prime ministerial period. In this context, it is not possible for statements in the nature of criticism to constitute the crime of 'Insulting the President'. The X account I use belongs entirely to me and is used only by me. All posts made on the account were published by me.
During the incidents in Kayseri, a Syrian guy harassed a Syrian girl. The police who arrived at the location attempted to detain the harasser, but the family of the Syrian and other Syrians in the neighborhood resisted the policemen. In response, citizens who had migrated to Kayseri from Southeastern Anatolia took over the streets to support the police and later the incidents escalated. When the news spread, people from different neighborhoods of Kayseri came to the scene. On the day the incidents started, I replied to a provocative social media account, “You will share your full name here to be able to call it wrong. You will go to Kayseri. You will share photos from the street there. You will not invite the Turkish nation to the streets on social media with such fake names. The people showed reaction, this way no one will be deported, this way the country will only be destabilized as imperialism wants. If you want to deport Syrians and Afghans, you will vote for Zafer Party, and they will be sent away within the law. Dear people of Kayseri, the police is ours, the state is ours, the country is ours. You have claimed your city, now go back home. Don't allow intentional and unintentional provocateurs,' I replied.
On the same day at 00:41 and 22:56, I posted two separate messages calling on the people of Kayseri to return to their homes and suggesting that a curfew be declared. I also sent 3 of our deputy chairmen to the province the following day to ensure that Zafer Party members did not participate in the incidents. The reports on the incidents do not provide any evidence that Zafer Party members were involved in these incidents. As a result, the legal elements of the crimes of 'Insulting the President' and 'Inciting the People to Hatred and Enmity' have not been established. Zafer Party and I support the return of asylum seekers to their homeland within the framework of international and national law. I request a verdict of non-prosecution against me.
ALİ DİNÇER ÇOLAK: CASE IN TERROR PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE
Zafer Party Deputy Chairman Ali Dinçer Çolak reported that the file of Ümit Özdağ was given to the “terror prosecutor's office”. Çolak also noted that a confidentiality order was brought to the file.
Çolak's post on his X account is as follows: “The file of our leader has been handed over to the terror prosecutor's office. A confidentiality decision has been made on the investigation. We continue to stand in front of the courthouse. Law and justice will be in need of everyone someday.”
WHAT DID ÖZDAĞ SAY?
Zafer Party leader Ümit Özdağ gave the closing speech on the last day of his party's Provincial Chairs Consultation Meeting in Antalya.
Özdağ said that AKP's President Erdoğan inserted FETO into the state, handed the state over to FETO and let FETO establish a parallel state, adding, “No crusade has been able to make the Turkish nation Deist, Atheist and Christian. During the Erdogan era, big segments of the Turkish nation started to lose faith in their religion because of those who deceive them with Allah, and the percentage of deists and atheists exceeded 16 percent during the Erdogan era. Erdoğan should know that the founders of the Republic did not assault the faith, history and culture of the Turkish nation; on the contrary, Atatürk and his comrades-in-arms protected and cultivated the faith, history and culture of the Turkish nation. It is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan himself who attacked the belief, culture and history of the Turkish nation and who learned history from a madman in a fez.”
Ümit Özdağ, who said that Erdoğan damaged the history of the nation by revisioning history, noted the following:
“Erdoğan is harming the Turkish nation's faith by distributing the state of the Turkish nation among sects and religious communities, harming the Turkish nation's faith by making those who practice polytheism partners in the state, and destroying the culture of the Turkish nation by letting millions of asylum seekers and fugitives into Anatolia. What is actually happening is the facism of AKP. We, as the Zafer Party, will not be normalizing this fascism like the main opposition (CHP). We will resist and we will win. Victory will belong to the Turkish state and the Turkish nation.”
ÖZEL: WE WILL DEFEAT THE GOVERNMENT TOGETHER
CHP leader Özgür Özel had visited the Istanbul Courthouse in Çağlayan to express his support for Ümit Özdağ. Making a short statement here, Özel said the following:
“I am here to stand side by side with a chairman with whom I disagree on many issues. Politics is based on words. The nation did not give Erdoğan the authority to imprison his opponents and arrest party leaders while they were having dinner. I just hugged Mr. Müsavat Dervişoğlu (Leader of Iyi Party), who said that from now on, Kemalists, nationalists and democrats will no longer be in competition, they will unite. This is the correct thing.
As CHP, we are fighting a great struggle, but if the opposition is disunited from each other, the government could create the atmosphere it desires. The government is attacking all of us on bases that will divide us from each other. The day is not for divisions, but for uniting side by side. The people on the streets want to get rid of this government. There is not a politician left that this prosecutor has not targeted in the last 2 months. We will not bow down; we will never fall apart. We will defeat this government together with an opposition united against this organized villainy. We will be united from now on. As long as some people do not fall for the Palace's game and believe the false accusations daily.”
Who is Ümit Özdağ? Ümit Özdağ is the leader of the nationalist, anti-refugee Zafer Party.
