Turkey needs a change in foreign policy: CHP head

ANKARA

Turkey needs a drastic foreign policy change, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said on June 18.

“We need to act national in foreign policy. The priority is Turkey’s interest. Both the government and the opposition party should advocate this,” Kılıçdaroğlu said in his speech at CHP’s parliamentary group in capital Ankara.”

“Peace at home, peace abroad. [Modern Turkey’s founder] Mustafa Kemal [Atatürk] is saying this. Yet this has become an international discourse, a common saying of all international establishments. Turkey’s main goal is to get along with all her neighbors,” he added.

 The first thing Atatürk did when he established the republic was signing peace treaties with neighbors, Kılıçdaroğlu said.

Kılıçdaroğlu also said that Turkey is “losing” in its foreign policy, once again stressing the importance of the country’s needs to establish peace with the world’s nations.

“Relations with neighbors are very important,” he added.

The party leader recalled Turkey’s peace operation in Cyprus, in 1974, which resulted in the establishment of Turkish Cyprus, saying the operation went “unscathed."

“The policy in Cyprus needs to change. A new move needs to be made. If not, we will face bigger problems in the future,” he underlined.

“We lost sixteen islands [in the Aegean and Mediterranean]. Why is no one opposing this? Where are this country’s national interests?” Kılıçdaroğlu questioned.

Turkey is losing something different with every coming day, he said.

Kılıçdaroğlu also referred to the recent drilling disputes in the East Mediterranean, urging voters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to protect Turkey’s national interests.

 “Turkey is being isolated in the international area,” he said.

The CHP head also brought up the current military situation in Idlib, voicing his concerns of the possible migrant flow from Syria to Turkey.

“Syria is our neighbor. The fire in there will spread to us. People are dying as the West’s hegemon powers provide arms,” he said.

Kılıçdaroğlu also conveyed his condolences over the death of Egypt’s first elected leader Mohamad Morsi, saying despite his political differences with Morsi, he opposed the military coup that toppled the Egyptian president.

“He lost his life in a courtroom. One would wish that for him to be buried worthily of a president. It is unacceptable that he was buried in secret and only with a ceremony his family attended,” he said.