Turkey’s president should embrace 83 million Turks: Kılıçdaroğlu

ANKARA

The qualifications of the next president should be discussed instead of guessing who will be running as the opposition’s candidate for the upcoming presidential race, the head of the main opposition has said, suggesting that the head of the nation should be a person who can embrace the entire 83 million of the population.

“[The president] should be able to embrace 83 million [Turks]. The president should be the head of the nation and therefore impartial. That means the president should not be the head of a political party,” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), told at a meeting with mukhtars in the province of Edirne on July 11.

The president should not be a person making statements around the clock but expressing his opinions when needed, he said, adding, “Plus, the president should set a model with his way of life. Everyone should be sure that the president is a modest and honest person and will not be a subject of blackmail due to his or her asset. The president should be ethical and humble.”

The president should be fair and stand with the justice at all times, Kılıçdaroğlu stated, urging that Turkey’s top leader should avoid doing politics over faith. “Nobody has the right to enter between God and man. No politics should be done over lifestyles. A president who will respect all these differences is needed,” he said. The president should be a person advocating for first-class democracy in the country, added the CHP leader.

The CHP is doing politics over social identities and therefore trying to keep connected with all different walks of life in Turkey, Kılıçdaroğlu said. “First we listen to their problems and then try to find solutions for them. It does not matter whether they vote for us or not, but we make sure that we are standing at the same distance to all of our citizens,” he said.