Local polls may bring end of Turkey's main opposition: Erdoğan

ANKARA

The March 2019 local election may bring the end of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) with Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu at its helm, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Oct. 22. 

“This is because the person who is heading the main opposition is not just a trouble for the nation, but also for the CHP. We need to save the CHP from this person,” Erdoğan said at a training program of the women’s branch of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) at its headquarters in Ankara.

“Some friends [of mine] say ‘It is to your benefit that he [Kılıçdaroğlu] stays at that position.’ Despite losing every election, you [Kılıçdaroğlu] are still entering elections. Is there a bigger democracy than this?” Erdoğan said.

The CHP had received 22.6 percent of the votes in the June 24 parliamentary elections, while its presidential candidate, Muharrem İnce, received 30.6 percent of the votes, losing both races to Erdoğan and the ruling AKP.

Erdoğan also accused CHP officials of using a “discriminatory” language against Syrian refugees in Turkey.

“By targeting the oppressed, using chauvinistic statements and discriminatory words befitting fully the CHP, they think that they will garner more votes. They have utilized every kind of lie to provoke this nation… But, whatever they do, the result of the March 2019 elections will be the same. Hopefully, they will experience the same fiasco again,” he said.

“We have not committed any discrimination [towards Syrian refugees]. The number [of Syrian refugees] is four million in total [in Turkey]. The EU has not given the funds it should have given us, this is not important for us. What is important is what we have done. We have made a spending of $33 billion until now [for Syrian refugees], whereas the amount they [the EU] have given us is $1.75 billion. Whether it comes from them or not, we will continue to be the host [of the refugees],” Erdoğan said.

The president added that the number of women mayors of the AKP was “not enough,” calling for an increase and that the number of women mayors should reflect the proportion of women in the country’s population.

“The AKP has eight women mayors. This is not enough. Our desire is to reflect a proportional picture in accordance with the population,” Erdoğan said.

“A politics that ignores, sidelines or wastes the potential and power of women does not stand a chance in Turkey,” he said.

Those who exclude women or view them just as “showpieces” are doomed to fail in politics, he said.

Erdoğan said the AKP’s women’s branch has already started preparing for the upcoming local elections.

“The full reflection of the results of the June 24 parliamentary and presidential elections in Turkey will be related to the success of the upcoming local elections” set to be held on March 31, 2019, the president said.