Opposition bloc candidate pledges visa-free travel in EU in three months

ANKARA

The Nation Alliance’s joint presidential candidate and the Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, said on April 5 that his government would meet all the European Union visa liberalization benchmarks in three months and Turks will not need a Schengen visa to enter the EU if the opposition bloc comes to power in the next elections.

“We will win the presidency. We will come to power. We will make [the country] breathe easily in one year. We will solve visa problems in three months. You will travel to Europe without a visa. We will remove the visa [requirement],” he said in a televised interview.

“We will bring democracy to this country. If one restricts the freedom of thought, they will not give the visa. We will say that everyone can freely criticize. I tell the young people: Don’t worry, you will criticize me most easily. When this structure changes, not only Europe but the whole world will look at us differently,” Kılıçdaroğlu stated.

A migration deal between Türkiye and the EU in 2016 consisted of visa-free travel for Turkish nationals within the Schengen area. But the visa-free deal had not been implemented due to Türkiye’s anti-terror law, which is among the EU’s benchmarks.

Elaborating on the presidential candidacy of Muharrem İnce, the chairman of the Homeland Party, Kılıçdaroğlu said his party had contacted the former CHP official regarding the upcoming May 14 polls, but that they were not able to agree with İnce.

Kılıçdaroğlu said that the talks addressed scenarios both before and after the elections and that the negotiation did not take place at their bilateral meeting.

“Not there, but an offer has been made, including before and after May 14. But it was not agreed upon. I won’t go into details. I think we did our part. I don’t have the right to blame the other party. I don’t want to be unfair to him,” he said.

The CHP leader stated that four candidates will run in the presidential elections most likely, but he assumes that the polls will give the final result in the first round.

In a message on Twitter after Kılıçdaroğlu’s statements, İnce said, “During Mr. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s visit to our party, we talked about the earthquake zone, ballot box security, and trolls. No offer of the alliance has been made to me by him. Although all our communication channels with him are open, we have not had any conversations on this subject.”

Kılıçdaroğlu met İnce on March 29 to discuss a possible election alliance. İnce, the former presidential candidate of the CHP in the 2018 presidential polls, has garnered the support of more than 100,000 people, making him a contender for the next presidential polls.

In the meantime, Canan Kaftancıoğlu, the Istanbul head of the CHP, claimed that the party’s Istanbul headquarters building was attacked at around 5 a.m. on April 6.

According to the statements of a police officer on duty in the building and a security guard in an area nearby the building, six or seven shots were fired, Kaftancıoğlu said in a social media post.

Though the bullets that hit the building could not be found, empty shell cases were found at the scene, she noted.

The prosecutor’s office’s investigation into the incident is ongoing, Kaftancıoğlu added.