Nation Alliance candidate points at late President Özal’s target for Türkiye

ISTANBUL

Nation Alliance’s presidential candidate and Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said on April 16 that they aim to reach the level of development that late Turkish President Turgut Özal had set.

Kılıçdaroğlu pledged to “rebuild the developing Türkiye that Özal had set as his target,” while speaking at the opening ceremony of the “Turgut Özal Memorial Venue” built by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality next to the eighth President Özal’s mausoleum in Topkapı.

“Recognizing the state is something different,” Kılıçdaroğlu said and stressed Özal had the characteristic of putting the state and his political party in separate places during his rule.

“He was a person who always respected the state and its institutions in every environment. I have respectfully expressed and explained Özal’s great contributions to this country in every place. Those who run the state should not confuse the party with the state,” the CHP leader said.

The institutions should serve the state while the political power works in line with its target perspective, Kılıçdaroğlu said. “This needs to be recreated in Türkiye. Politicians have a big responsibility” in restoring this order, he added.

“Özal combined four actions. We have now come together with six political parties for Türkiye’s difficult conditions and for it to come out of this crisis. Our main goal is a democracy, freedom of thought, tolerance of politicians to criticism,” Kılıçdaroğlu stated.

Now the country faces “an understanding that can never tolerate criticism,” he said and emphasized this must change.

When democracy, freedom of thought, and tolerance of politicians to criticism are restored, Türkiye can mobilize its capacities for growth and development, the CHP leader emphasized.

“We set out together, we will fight, and we will win together. Discrimination will end. We will live together in this beautiful country. That’s when we will rebuild the developing Türkiye that Özal set a target for,” he stated.