Turkey going through one of its most major crises: CHP leader

ANKARA

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Only days before marking the beginning of 2016, the main opposition leader of the country has argued that the 92-year-old Republic of Turkey has actually been passing through one of its most major crises, citing five key problematic areas as “terror, economy, education, societal peace and law.”

Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu dubbed 2015 “very significant” in regards to Turkey’s political history.

“General elections were held consecutively [in 2015]. Between the two elections, almost 400 of our citizens were victimized by terror,” Kılıçdaroğlu said on Dec. 29, while addressing the last weekly parliamentary group meeting of his party in 2015.

“While Turkey didn’t have any fundamental problem earlier, five fundamental problem areas have emerged in 2015,” he said, listing these areas as “terror, economy, education, societal peace and law.”

Following the June 7 elections which failed to produce a single-party government, a suicide bombing attack against socialist activists in the border town of Suruç killed 34 people in July. Violence between Turkish security forces and militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) reignited this summer after the attack in Suruç, shattering a fragile peace process, dubbed the “resolution process” by governmental officials, following a two-and-a-half-year de facto period of non-conflict. The bombing was blamed on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), but the PKK and many in the Turkish opposition blamed the Justice and Development Party (AKP) for creating the conditions to facilitate the attack.

“Societal peace has been undermined, law has been slaughtered and justice is over. A political power which has been ruling the country for 13 years brought the country to this point,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, referring to the ruling AKP, which came to power for the first time in November 2002.

“At the moment, the Republic of Turkey is experiencing one of its most major crises. We have entered into this process,” he said. 

Fighting in the country’s southeast has been particularly intense in the last two weeks and the military says more than 210 PKK militants have been killed. 

Arguing that justice was not prevailing in Turkey, the CHP leader claimed that nobody has security of life and property.

“Journalists are imprisoned just because they did accurate reporting; 32 journalists have been jailed, could such a democracy, such law exist? Which rule of law? There is rule of sovereigns, but not of law,” he said.