Prime Minister Erdoğan is Turkey’s 'new dictator,' main opposition leader says

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kılıçdaroğlu said the 'young protesters of Gezi Park made a dictator kneel down.' DHA photo

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has become “the new dictator of Turkey.”

“There are 7 billion people in the world. Making mistakes is natural for people and they correct their mistakes, and when it’s needed they apologize. This is a human virtue. If we make a mistake, we know how to apologize. But he [Erdoğan] says, ‘I do not make mistakes.’ He says, ‘if you don't do what I say, you can't be right.’ His name is Turkey’s new dictator, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, addressing his party’s group meeting today at Parliament.

Kılıçdaroğlu added that the “young protesters of Gezi Park had made a dictator kneel down.” “Now in a panic he is organizing meetings across the country, all he does is yell, but the only one who listens him is himself. Do not pay attention to all the broadcasters’ live streams from his meetings. Nobody listens to what he says. There is one word when it comes to defining Erdoğan: liar,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

A heated crowd in Parliament interrupted Kılıçdaroğlu’s words several times, chanting: “Resign Erdoğan.”

The CHP head said Erdoğan had tried several methods to break the solidarity among the protesters. “He was going to claim that those protesters are nonbelievers, and then he saw some performing their prayers in Taksim Square. He was going to say our daughters wearing headscarves were being the target of protesters, then he saw some of the protesters wearing headscarves,” Kılıçdaroğlu added. 

He also accused Erdoğan of acting with sectarian motives after the Reyhanlı bombings on Turkey’s border with Syria in Hatay’s Reyhanlı district, which killed 52 people in May 11.

“Our 52 citizens lost their lives in the Reyhanlı bombings. And he said ‘our 52 Sunni citizens lost their lives.’ For the first time in Turkey’s history even the sects of deaths were discriminated,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, rhetorically asking whether Erdoğan "has feelings of shame."