Erdoğan responds to Kılıçdaroğlu on language

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan criticized main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who had urged him to avoid using harsh language against other opposition parties.

“Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu, you have a long way to go in politics before teaching us a lesson. You are in a position to get advice at the moment, not in a position to give advice. We are making efforts to fix the abusive language of Kılıçdaroğlu that he launched at the [2010] congress [where] he [was] elected [to the chairmanship]. Still, he has not changed his [abusive] language,” Erdoğan said yesterday at a party meeting.

Kılıçdaroğlu, who voiced his optimism for his party’s proposal for establishing a joint parliamentary commission on the Kurdish issue, appealed to Erdoğan on June 12 to use more moderate language against the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). Erdoğan previously accused the MHP and BDP of abusing the funerals of late soldiers’ and Kurdish militants’ funerals for their political gain, and called on them to “stop keeping watch in front of the mortuary.”
Responding to the main opposition leader’s criticism, Erdoğan said that Kılıçdaroğlu should change the style of his language first.

“Frankly speaking, sometimes he takes the [Justice and Development Party] AK Party as an example of the style of political language. He tries to imitate the style of our language. But I have to remind that he is closer to the style of [MHP leader Devlet] Bahçeli rather than Ak Party,” Erdoğan said.

CHP deputy chair and party speaker Birgül Ayman Güler responded Erdoğan’s remarks and described Erdoğan’s words as “brutal.” Güler said that such a language was disappointing.