State policies on foreign ties, security will be maintained: CHP leader

KIRCAALİ

Foreign and security policies, as well as defense industry projects, will continue to run if the opposition alliance comes to power in the next elections, says Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the joint candidate of the alliance.

“I address you from Kırcaali. I will have just one word. The Turkic state’s policy, Mediterranean policy, foreign policy and defense industry are state-run policies. They are independent of the policies of political parties because the state is eternal,” Kılıçdaroğlu said in a video message he released from Kırcaali, or Kardzhali, in Bulgaria, where he paid a one-day visit and held talks with Bulgarian citizens with Turkish descent over the weekend.

Kılıçdaroğlu, who is also the chairman of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), held met and talked to the representatives of the Turkish community in Kırcaali. He also joined an iftar dinner there.

Recalling that some ruling party officials argue that all these policies will be abandoned if he becomes the president in the May 14 polls, Kılıçdaroğlu said, “The [presidential] palace is playing with the perceptions because it implements a foreign policy based on personal decisions.”

“These policies will not be abandoned. When Mr. Kemal is elected the state will act as a state again, and the political parties will act like a political party. The state will be serious as it has to be,” he added.

The government circles claim that Türkiye’s important foreign policy matters from the Mediterranean to Syria will all be abandoned if the Nation Alliance comes to power in the next polls. These circles accuse the opposition alliance of clinching secret agreements with the Western powers.