Kılıçdaroğlu, Özdağ continue talks for election support

ANKARA

Victory Party Chair Ümit Özdağ said on May 23 that his party will continue discussions with Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader and Nation Alliance’s presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on the issue of lending support for his candidacy in the presidential election runoff.

Özdağ said he would meet with Kılıçdaroğlu late on May 23 and that they plan to make a statement together on May 24.

“Some face-to-face meetings are required to sign a memorandum for consensus,” he told reporters referring to the text that the National Alliance and Victory party has been studying for a possible endorsement of Kılıçdaroğlu’s candidacy.

“Although we have covered a very serious distance, we will hold another meeting with Mr. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on his way back from [the southern quake-hit province of] Hatay today because it [talks] has not been concluded yet,” Özdağ said.

“We hope that we will carry out the process that has developed so far positively at this stage as well,” he added.

Commenting on Sinan Oğan’s support to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for the May 28 polls, Özdağ said, “It is at his discretion. He does not bind the Victory Party. We think differently with Mr. Sinan on this issue. We leave it to the public’s discretion.”

“When we set out with Mr. Sinan, we set out to close the gates of hell. We are still trying to close the gates of hell,” he said.

The four-party ATA Alliance, whose presidential candidate Sinan Oğan garnered 5.2 percent of votes in the first round of the presidential elections, has been dissolved, with its main components to make their individual decisions on who to support in the runoff presidential polls.

Oğan’s statement came after the components of the ATA Alliance announced that they parted ways and that they will vote individually in the second round.

Kılıçdaroğlu visits Hatay to meet quake-victims

Meanwhile, Kılıçdaroğlu visited Hatay, one of the severely hit provinces by the Feb. 6 quakes, and met with the victims of the disaster on May 23.

“We will reconstruct houses, barns and workplaces in all these provinces. We will hand over them to you free of charge. We have secured low-interest rates from international creditors. All our works to this end are ready,” Kılıçdaroğlu said at a meeting with the quake-victims

Around 1 million new homes will be reconstructed in this region, and that means there will be intense work in this region, Kılıçdaroğlu said, informing that he will establish a special production base there.

“This will be the greatest manufacturing base in this part of the world,” he said.

Kılıçdaroğlu also mentioned the issue of refugees, repeating that they will return to their homeland in two years. Türkiye is hosting around 3.6 million Syrians who fled the civil war since 2011.

In a video message on May 23, Kılıçdaroğlu called on the youth to vote for him on May 28, if they care about the economy and the future.

“This is a referendum. Are we going to save our country’s destroyed economy in the last exit or are we going to tumble down the cliff? Those who love his or her homeland should vote,” he said in a video message on May 23.

Kılıçdaroğlu will run against incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to be the 13th president in the runoff polls on Sunday. He got around 45 percent of the votes while the latter garnered 49.5 percent of votes in the first round.

Addressing the youth ahead of the polls, Kılıçdaroğlu drew attention to the economy and urged that the Turkish Lira will further depreciate in case Erdoğan wins the polls. “Don’t forget! You will not vote for me, you will vote for yourself,” he stated.