Turkey’s 150-year parliamentary system being abandoned for one man: CHP head

BURSA – Doğan News Agency

AA Photo

Turkey’s 150-year-old parliamentary system is being abandoned for the will of one person, not for the benefit of the country, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said.

“We have a 150-year-old parliamentary system experience. Of course, there are malfunctions, which can be overcome. But why are we suddenly changing a 150-year-old tradition? For someone to be president,” Kılıçdaroğlu told a local TV station in the northwestern province of Bursa on Jan. 29, referring to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The CHP leader questioned why such an initiative was being made, saying the government was “tyrannizing society.”

“Have you incorporated the idea of bringing a presidency into the government program? No. You don’t have such a promise, but you have tyrannized society, you have pressured it,” said Kılıçdaroğlu, slamming the government for “silencing” universities, NGOs, and suppressing freedom of expression.

“You are imposing a different regime on society,” he added.

Suggesting that such problems partly derived from Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu not performing his role as the head of the government, Kılıçdaroğlu described Erdoğan’s annointment of Davutoğlu as the next head of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and prime minister, after the presidential elections in August 2014, as “an act democracy could not withstand.”