CHP head: Turkey is in need of a new development program

MERSİN

“States need a course of action and Turkey is a state without a development plan,” the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said on March 5.

“People work 24 hours a day if necessary and draw a course of action for themselves. States need planning as well as a course of action. Japan and South Korea have been planning the next 100 years ahead. Turkey is a state with no development plan. The last one was expired in 2018,” said Kılıçdaroğlu, in his speech at a meeting with representatives of NGOs and businessmen, in southern province of Mersin.

“There is no course of action that plans ahead. We need to produce products with high added value but how are we going to do this? In order to have a say in things or have a power in the world, Turkey needs to produce, from art to machinery,” he added.

Turkey have fallen behind even in agriculture, according to Kılıçdaroğlu.

The party leader also stressed that previously, political authorities in Turkey paid attention to the ideas and suggestions of juniors and merit was dominant.

“Turkey has ruptured from such an understanding. This is one of our fundamental problems. There is no merit, there is only loyalty [to superiors]. When the state’s bureaucratic structure gets separated from merit, no good services can be provided,” he said.

Kılıçdaroğlu also stressed that the heated disputes between political parties do the country no good.

“Let’s compete in our pledges on how to provide services. Both sides present their projects to the public’s appreciation. Let alone this, we have been encountering many insults. Politics should have morals,” he added.

“This is how politics function in every democratic nation in the world. In Turkey, we are doing politics over ethnic identity. Who has the ability to choose his family?” Kılıçdaroğlu stressed.

It is a humanitarian duty to respect all identities, the CHP leader said.