#ResistDavutoğlu, Kılıçdaroğlu says

Okan Konuralp ANKARA

‘We’ll observe a direct intervention against the state’s traditions,’ Kılıçdaroğlu (R) tells Hürriyet in his country house. HÜRRİYET photo, Rıza ÖZEL

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s decision to chair the cabinet meeting that will take place on Jan. 19 is a straightforward intervention against the Turkish state’s tradition, the leader of the main opposition has said, calling Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu to resist for stopping such interventions into his authority.

“President announced that he will chair the cabinet meeting in January. We’ll observe one concrete example of a direct intervention against the state’s traditions.  We are aware of other interventions towards Mr. Davutoğlu’s area of responsibility. I call ‘resistdavutoğlu’. He has to resist,” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) told the daily Hürriyet in his first interview in 2015.

Erdoğan announced the date of the cabinet meeting that he will chair last week after a quarrel between his top aide, Binali Yıldırım and Prime Minister Davutoğlu. Yıldırım, in an interview two weeks ago, hinted Erdoğan might convene the cabinet on Jan. 5 but Davutoğlu denied Erdoğan’s top aide and underlined that these issues could only be discussed between the prime minister and president.

Although Turkish constitution authorizes the president to convene the cabinet, former head of nations did rarely use this power, especially at extraordinary times. President Erdoğan put an end to the controversy by announcing that he will use his right to chair the cabinet on Jan 19.

Kılıçdaroğlu recalled that Turkey will go to the polls in June to renew the Parliament and underlined that these elections will be crucially important. “During 12 years of AKP (Justice and Development Party) rule, none of ours moral values have been protected. All of our value judgments have been despised and have been mocked with. In the past, there was a concept called moral. Today, however, there is no any other concept that suffered from erosion than moral. Unlawfulness became the rule,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

Turkey needs to undergo an important change in 2015 in order not to be detached from the contemporary world, Kılıçdaroğlu said, urging “Otherwise Turkey will speedily drop even behind Middle Eastern countries. What kind of a change it will be? We’ll sure respect to people’s choices. I trust in the people.”

Kılıçdaroğlu stressed that this change was necessary for avoiding existing polarization within the society and for revaluing the moral and the reason as well as for making the Turkish society a contemporary one.  “A worst picture will appear if this does not happen. Naturally 2015, as an election year, will be the year of choice between ‘democracy’ and ‘dictatorial regime’,” he stated.
HH CHP readies projects for 2015 campaign

CHP leader vowed that the party is penning important and exciting projects that would respond different segments of the society and called the people not to get desperate. “This is a country that has never lost its hope even in most dark days. This is true that there is oppression, there is unemployment but we have enough power to overcome all these. This will be clearer when we reveal our projects,” he said.

One of the projects that the CHP will disclose is the one that ends the implementation of subcontracted workers enrolled in the public sector. “There are hundreds of thousands of subcontracted workers in the state enterprises. I openly say, we will recruit all of them as public workers,” he said.

‘Erdoğan should not be taken seriously’

On ongoing debate whether the Ottoman language should be taught at the schools, Kılıçdaroğlu criticized Erdoğan’s imperious way of bringing this issue to the agenda and described it as a sign of despotism. “Mr. President would quit this imperiousness if he would know the Ottoman history,”
Kılıçdaroğlu said, calling on intellectuals no to take Erdoğan’s statements serious. CHP leader said he would like to present President Erdoğan with the book titled ‘Ottoman History’ of İsmail Hakkı Uzunçarşılı. Kılıçdaroğlu’s gift to Prime Minister Davutoğlu would be Fathali M. Moghaddam’s famous book “The Psychology of Dictatorship”. 

“As you can recall, this book was given to Ms. Emine Erdoğan as a gift while she was accompanying to the President’ visit to the United States as the prime minister. I would like to present Mr. Davutoğlu with his book so that he can understand the psychology of a dictator,” he said.