If one person makes mistake, the whole country will have to pay for it: CHP leader

ANKARA

AA photo

Turkey has more immediate problems to focus on such as an economic crisis, unemployment and education than the charter change, which will usher the country into an executive presidential system, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said. 

He stressed that such mass power should not be given to one person. 

“In a one-man regime, if one person makes a mistake, the whole country will have to pay for it,” Kılıçdaroğlu told his party members in parliament on Feb. 28, noting that the anticipated new system will bring a one-man regime. 

“Do you know what happens when you hand over a state to a person? If any power can trick a person, then that power can seize the state in 12 hours. How? Because, the president will have the authority to issue a decree. Governors, district governors, commanders and religious officers may be changed over a lunch time if requested. Can Turkey be dragged into such an adventure?” he said. 

“That much authority should not be given to just one person. If you give that much authority to a saint, the saint will go off the rails,” he added.

Kılıçdaroğlu also criticized the government for accusing naysayers of supporting terror. 

“The only argument they could find is ‘the naysayers are terrorists.’ Those who accuse citizens of being terrorists are the ones who aid and abet terrorists,” he said.


Call for referendum on Syrians and Raqqa

Kılıçdaroğlu also called for a referendum to decide whether Turkey should grant citizenship to Syrian refugees and if Turkey should participate in an offensive in Syria’s Raqqa.

“Why are you giving citizenship [to Syrians]? Based on what? If they want, mark my words, let’s hold a referendum to ask whether Syrians should be given citizenships or not. How many Syrians are there in Turkey, is that not certain? The numbers vary. But certainly, the number is not less than 4 million,” he said.

“Let’s assume the Syrians came, it is possible that they have fled war, and I have no objection to that. But if you are accepting them, then you should keep them in camps. There are Syrians in all 81 provinces of Turkey. Forget about camps, they open businesses. My tradespeople pay taxes, Syrians do not,” he said. 

“Our young men are being sent to Syria and are being martyred there. Our children, the children of poor families of Anatolia, go to Syria and become martyrs. But their young people are here in Turkey. Why is that so? Besides, they find jobs and work here. Our children are unemployed, they have jobs,” he added.

“Our citizens are treated as second class citizens in their own country,” he said.

Kılıçdaroğlu also criticized Turkey’s plan in participating in an offensive in Raqqa, asking that such a plan should also be taken to a referendum.

“Now they are insisting on going into Raqqa. Some people have given them an order. An upper mind has sent the order. Let’s have a referendum on whether we should go to Raqqa or not. Let’s ask the nation if our children should go to Raqqa or not,” he said.