Social Memory Platform denounces Erdoğan’s accusations against CHP İstanbul Chair

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The Social Memory Platform has released a statement regarding the remarks of President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, who accused main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) İstanbul Chair Dr. Canan Kaftancıoğlu of "being the member of a terrorist organization."

Referring to the similar accusations against Hasan Ocak, who was tortured and disappeared in custody in 1995, the platform has said, "A smear campaign is being waged against Canan Kaftancıoğlu and Hasan Ocak based on inconsistent accusations without evidence."

The statement has underlined that there are two organizations that Kaftancıoğlu is a member of: "The organization that Canan Kaftancıoğlu is a member of is the Republican People's Party (CHP) and Turkish Medical Association (TTB); her family is the Social Memory Platform."

'We believe in truth, not in violence'

The platform has criticized that Kaftancıoğlu has been targeted over a social media post regarding Hasan Ocak.  "We are the relatives of the journalists, academics, artists, thinkers and politicians, whose lives have been taken in this country," the platform has said and added:

"We have seen so many killings, so many sorrows, so many griefs. We are a large and grieving family. We are the mirror of the sorrows that the ones governing this country do not want to face or do not have the courage to face. While walking behind the coffins of our loved ones, we had a single demand in our hearts: Justice!...

"We have raised this demand not only for our loved ones; it has been our common ground for an equal, fair and free life for everyone in the country."

Indicating that "they believe in truth, not in violence," the platform has said, "We could not have imagined that the people that we lost on our path for justice would be accused of being the members of terrorist organizations which deliberately claim people's lives and that we would be directly targeted by the highest-ranking officials of the country."

'Allegations are inconsistent, without evidence'

Reiterating that "a smear campaign is being waged against Canan Kaftancıoğlu and Hasan Ocak for varying allegations of organization membership," the Social Memory Platform has noted these accusations "are inconsistent and are not based on any evidence."

The platform has also reminded the public about a previous meeting between President and AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Saturday Mothers/ People, who have been demanding justice for their enforced disappeared relatives since the 1990s, but have been prevented from protesting in Galatasaray Square in İstanbul for over two years.

Indicating that Erdoğan promised "justice" to Saturday Mothers, the platform has noted that "today, he sees no harm in declaring Hasan Ocak, a symbol of the Saturday Mothers' reality, as a terrorist, thereby using him as a tool in is fight against the party that he cannot manage to beat at the ballot box as well as against the leftist, socialist and social democratic thought."

'We are Hasan Ocak'

"We are Hasan Ocak," the platform has said further and underlined that "the realities of the killing of Hasan Ocak is one of the cornerstones in the families' search for justice for their disappeared relatives."

The Social Memory Platform has also referred to Ümit Kaftancıoğlu, the father-in-law of Canan Kaftancıoğlu who was murdered in 1980:

"As for Canan Kaftancıoğlu, instead of demanding justice only for her relative, she has extended the scope of the struggle waged to solve the murder of Ümit Kaftancıoğlu, one of the biggest losses of our large family just like Hasan Ocak, so that it could be possible to heal, share the sorrows, face the past in a sincere manner and establish permanent justice." (RT/SD)