State should serve, not oppress, Turkey's main opposition leader says

Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu visits Tekirdağ.

The state mechanism is not a tool to oppress the people, but to provide services to them, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said, criticizing the homeland security bill draft brought to parliament by the ruling party. 

“The state is a tool to serve people, not oppress them,” he told reporters in the Thracian province of Tekirdağ on Feb. 20. 

“You cannot give a stick to the state’s hand and keep the people in tight rein with it,” he said. “This is what they want to do and this is what we object to.” 

According to Kılıçdaroğlu, terror reined in parliament while debating the bill. 

“And this is called the homeland security bill?” he ironically asked. “What kind of a security bill is this that you attack the opposition deputies and wound them? If the Justice and Development Party [AKP] is doing this to deputies, what will they do to the people? Deputies have immunity and look what happens. The citizens do not have immunity,” he said. 

Kılıçdaroğlu argued there were already laws against violence in street protests and it was the government’s duty to have them implemented. “Turkey should accept a first-class democracy,” he said, citing Germany, the U.K., France, Belgium and Japan as good examples.