AKP congress merely a routine, says CHP head

ANKARA

The head of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has slammed the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) extraordinary party congress over the weekend, saying it was merely routine procedure. 

Binali Yıldırım, a close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was the sole nominee at the AKP congress on May 22 and was elected with 1,405 votes from 1,470 delegates present. He is now set to be Turkey’s new prime minister. 

“It’s not right to call it a congress. It was called a congress according to the Political Parties Law, but it wasn’t a congress in real terms. It was necessary for one person, who was chosen by one other person, to be elected at the congress in order for him to be appointed as prime minister. It was a mere procedure,” CHP head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu told reporters on May 23, referring to Erdoğan’s overpowering role in the congress.

“I’ve checked the newspapers today and I saw that the congress either wasn’t included or took up a very short space, which shows that the AKP has no internal democracy,” Kılıçdaroğlu added.  

He also criticized Yıldırım for being a “low-profile” prime minister. 

“We will only accept him as a high-profile prime minister if he moves beyond his low profile and prevents interventions into his constitutional and legal authorities [by the president]. Otherwise he will be go down in our political history as a person who sat in his seat and performed somebody else’s orders,” Kılıçdaroğlu said. 

Speaking about outgoing prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s departure, the CHP head said the decision was taken by Erdoğan and not voluntarily by Davutoğlu, thus making the new administration a “coup government.” 

“This is now a coup government. It’s not the government that was sent to parliament by the people’s votes, with the prime minister winning 49.5 percent of the vote ... We don’t yet know details of the program of the coup government, but we’ll all find out together,” said Kılıçdaroğlu, referring to the program soon to be brought to parliament by the new government.

“It’s understood that we will be faced with a process that takes refuge in the laws passed [after the 1980 military coup] and strengthens them every day,” he added.