We need to restructure state, stick to rule of law: CHP

ISTANBUL

The leader of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, said that after last week’s failed coup attempt, the state needed to be restructured and also needed to stick to rule of law regarding the proceedings of the perpetrators. 

Speaking at his party’s “Republic and Democracy Rally” in Istanbul’s famous Taksim Square on July 24, Kılıçdaroğlu said the failed coup attempt of July 15 had openly showed that state management should be based on merit.

“In other words, we should imbed in history the understanding of capturing the state rather than ruling the state. In this context, the restructuring of the state is a necessity,” said Kılıçdaroğlu to a crowd of not only supporters of the CHP but also of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). 

For the first time, supporters of the CHP and AKP jointly participated in a rally against the coup attempt that left at least 246 people dead and more than 2,000 others injured. They chanted together in the name of democracy and the republic during the event. 

Earlier the CHP had invited the AKP to come join the rally, to which the latter answered positively. 

“The state cannot be managed with hate, anger and prejudice. The ones who have attempted a coup should stand trial within the law and by abiding with the rule of law. The dignity and seriousness of the state obliges this,” said Kılıçdaroğlu, adding that torture, maltreatment, pressure and threats towards the coup plotters would put the state at the same level as them. 

“It should not be allowed,” he said. 

Rights group Amnesty International said it had received credible evidence of detainees being subjected to beatings and torture, including rape, since the coup attempt.

“It is absolutely imperative that the Turkish authorities halt these abhorrent practices and allow international monitors to visit all these detainees in the places they are being held,” said Amnesty’s Europe director, John Dalhuisen, in a statement, according to Reuters.

“This coup attempt has shown once again how precious democracy and freedoms are for us all,” said Engin Altay, deputy head of the CHP, before the rally.

“All 133 CHP members of parliament will be in Taksim. But we are not the only owners of democracy. Everybody must come to the meeting and show the world how much democracy has been internalized [by Turks],” he told reporters.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has invited the leaders of the ruling and two opposition parties to the Presidential Palace in Ankara on July 25 to discuss the coup attempt and measures taken against coup plotters, marking another sign for the normalization of Turkish politics in the aftermath of the coup attempt.

Sources from the office of the president informed that Erdoğan had extended invitations to Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, leader of the AKP, Kılıçdaroğlu and Devlet Bahçeli, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). 

Erdoğan will thank the three party leaders for their united stance against the coup attempt and listen to their views on the ongoing fight against the Fethullah Gülen organization within the state, which is accused of organizing the coup attempt. 

Erdoğan’s invitation excluded Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) leader Selahattin Demirtaş, in a continued reaction against the party’s stance on the fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). 

Erdoğan’s invitation to Kılıçdaroğlu will be important in mending the relationship between the two, as they have engaged in harsh quarrels over the last two years. Kılıçdaroğlu had refused to go to the recently built presidential palace since Erdoğan moved to the massive presidential compound. The July 25 meeting will be a first for Kılıçdaroğlu. 

The meeting at the presidential office is set for 2:00 p.m.