CHP alarms Europe over AKP’s ‘goals’

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Faruk Loğoğlu is the deputy chair of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). AA photo

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has sent letters to international bodies including the European Parliament, Parliamentarian Assembly of Council of Europe, European Commission, Socialist International and European Socialist Party as well as to EU capitals and urged them to consider Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s remarks about separation of powers.

“Mr. Erdoğan claims that ‘the separation of powers stands before him as an obstacle.’ This latest assertion is an affront to and complete disregard for democracy. … A politician with this… mindset should have no place in a democratic regime. On the other hand, this latest anti-democratic foray by the AKP [ruling Justice and Development Party] converges with its goal and efforts to change the Turkish parliamentary system into a presidential system, designed to concentrate all powers in the hands of a single individual, unchecked by the legislative or the judicial branches of government,” CHP deputy chair Faruk Loğoğlu said in his letter dated Dec. 24.

“This is why I call on all who believe in democracy to reflect on these extremely disturbing developments and to stand up in defense of the fundamental underpinnings of democracy in Turkey,” Loğoğlu said.

In a speech delivered on Dec. 17, Erdoğan described the principle of the separation of power and bureaucratic oligarchy as the main obstacles to his government’s actions, especially court rulings that nixed major privatization projects.

Yet, as of Dec. 21, Erdoğan said he is strongly bound to the principle of the separation of powers, clarifying his earlier statement that this fundamental principle was the main obstacle for his government.

“The strongest supporter of this principle is my party. No one should try to distort this. I have just outlined our disturbances,” Erdoğan said in an interview with NTV. “Our disturbance is that the judiciary intervenes in the actions of the executive and the legislature.”