People’s Alliance will take Turkey to the future: Turkish PM

ERZİNCAN – Anadolu Agency

The People’s Alliance, formed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) for the June 24 early elections, is set to “stand firm against imperial powers and propel Turkey into the future,” Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said on May 12.

At an opening ceremony in the eastern Erzincan province, Yıldırım claimed the opposition parties’ alliance against the People’s Alliance is serving as “a life raft for members of FETÖ,” the group believed to have been behind the 2016 defeated coup.

The People’s Alliance will win the June 24 presidential elections, making it the AKP’s 13th election victory, and disappoint the opposition’s alliance, Yıldırım said.

This April, parliament passed a bill for early elections on June 24, cementing Turkey’s move to a presidential system.

In an April 2017 referendum, Turkish voters narrowly approved the switch from a parliamentary system to a presidential one.

The MHP-AKP alliance is supporting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is seeking his second term as president.

Erdoğan has served as president since 2014 as Turkey’s first popularly elected president. Before that, he served as prime minister from 2003 to 2014.

Last week the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), İYİ (Good) Party, Felicity (Saadet) Party, and Democrat Party (DP) signed a declaration for a four-party alliance called the “Nation Alliance” to jointly run in the parliamentary elections.