CHP head reiterates for a new referendum for neutrality

ANKARA

The nation’s president needs to remain impartial, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçaroğlu said on July 2, reiterating his previous remarks, calling for a referendum to decide whether the president should be nonpartisan.

“The president needs to be impartial. If he is not [impartial], then the state will have no insurance. In a way, the president is the wise man of the state. He needs to take a neutrality pledge. The head of the state should not be a party leader,” Kılıçdaroğlu said at CHP’s parliamentary group meeting in the capital Ankara.

“Let’s hold a referendum on the president’s neutrality. An overwhelming majority will vote in favor of an impartial president,” he added.

Kılıçaroğlu also stressed that the president needs to represent the solidarity of the Republic of Turkey, saying a president who is also a political party leader will fail to accomplish this.

“Does a party’s leader appoint members to the Constitutional Court? If so, then you cannot defend the independence of the judiciary,” he added.

Turkey is about to be disjointed, according to Kılıçdaroğlu, who said there is a “lack of justice and law” in the country.

The CHP head questioned the imprisonment of certain “intellectuals” and said “the wretched are in prison.”

“Justice is not solely for us; it is for everyone,” he said.

“We demand justice for 82 million [citizens of Turkey] and the world. Justice is like the North Star: it stands still, but the universe revolves around it,” he added.

Kılıçdaroğlu also said the economy has been going downhill since the switch to the executive presidency system.

“[Turkey’s] growth rate decreased. The national income declined to $66 billion while income per capita decreased to $9,632. Interest rates and unemployment increased. Turkey’s reputation in the world has degraded,” he said.

The tradesmen, industrialists and farmers are unable to pay their taxes, Kılıçdaroğlu said, stressing that the downturn in the economy also affects suicide rates and drug use.

“These are what the single-man regime has brought to Turkey,” the CHP head said, calling on voters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to think twice before voting.

Kılıçdaroğlu also commemorated the victims of the Sivas Massacre, an arson attack staged by an extremist mob on mostly Alevi guests to an event inside the Madımak Hotel that killed 33 intellectuals and two hotel personnel.

“A massacre happened in Madımak, on July 2. People were burned alive. We will never forget this or let this be forgotten,” he said.