CHP vows to lift emergency rule 48 hours after İnce takes office as president

ANKARA

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (Photo: Anadolu Agency)

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has vowed to lift the state of emergency 48 hours after its presidential candidate, Muharrem İnce, takes office as president in a clear message to the world that the new government prioritizes democracy.

“We will convey to the world that ‘Our direction is towards democracy. We will lift the state of emergency and we will strengthen our democracy’,” CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said in a televised interview early June 13.

Kılıçdaroğlu vowed that İnce, if elected as president in the June 24 elections, will lift the state of emergency two days into being the head of the nation.

The CHP leader recalled that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan promised to review the state of emergency after the June 24 elections but expressed his suspicion over the president’s intentions. “This review could also lead to toughening the state of emergency. He was asking ‘What’s wrong with the state of emergency?’ and that’s why he was saying that he was not planning to lift it,” he said.

“The state of emergency is bad for 81 million Turks and damages the value of the Turkish Lira,” Kılıçdaroğlu stated.

“They get angry when I say these: No one has life and property security. The wealth of everybody can be confiscated with just one decree law. Bosses can be detained.”

Turkey imposed the state of emergency on July 20, 2016, immediately after a failed coup attempt carried out by the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ). The opposition has long been criticizing the government for using the state of emergency on issues not immediately relevant with the failed coup and the coup plotters.