AKP swift to reply to CHP criticism

ANKARA

AA photo

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç has commented on the Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) call for an extraordinary legislative session, saying: “There is no judicious and rightful reason. From time to time CHP has boycotted the [General] Assembly.”

Venues for discussion of the terrorism problem are not limited to Parliament, Arınç said.
“There are many platforms in Turkey for the CHP to say what it wanted to say today at the General Assembly. Until today we had never heard about a [CHP] precaution package, or calls, or measures, either from Mr. [Kemal] Kılıçdaroğlu [leader of the the CHP] or from deputies. They only said, ‘We have this problem, let’s come together and talk.’” Arınç said.

The terrorism problem has been discussed from time to time in the General Assembly, he said. “General meetings have been held. As you can see in the reports, none of spokesmen of the CHP have had anything to offer about terrorism in Turkey, the reasons for and results of this situation. They only took advantage of this [past] meeting to insult and batter the government. They wanted to use today’s meeting for that also,” Arınç said.

Arınç also criticized Kılıçdaroğlu for not having discussed the issue previously. “I wonder what Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu will say at the General Assembly. He did not say a word [on the topic of terrorism] at their [the CHP’s] last convention. Will he say more than that?” Arınç said these topics will be on the General Assembly’s agenda in the new legislative term.

AKP deputy chairman Ömer Çelik also criticized the CHP’s request for an extraordinary session. “The CHP is acting imprudently and without perception,” Çelik said.

Çelik commented on CHP deputy Hüseyin Akgün, who was taken hostage by PKK terrorists on Aug. 12. Çelik asked what the CHP’s react to the PKK was, after their deputy was taken hostage, but said Akgün’s situation must be analyzed independently of his party, political identity, or ideology. “Taking a deputy hostage is an open attack on the national will,” Çelik said, “[But] to define Parliament’s agenda according to the PKK’s acting strategy would mean showing weakness in the struggle with terrorism.”
Çelik also called the CHP out on its criticism of Turkish foreign policy. “It will not do for Turkey to have opponents at such a level. They [the CHP] are trying to create weaknesses,” he said. Çelik accused the CHP of reporting Turkey’s foreign policy to the EU and other places.

“Our premier told them. They came here to make a proposal and our premier said ‘if you have any proposals, your friends and our friends can come together and work right away,’” Çelik said. “The PKK has targeted Turkey’s democracy. Turkish democracy and civilian policy should not act according to the PKK’s timing. This is a game that Parliament should never be part of.”