Turkish PM, opposition leader exchange hard criticism

AFYON / ANTALYA

PM Davutoğlu addresses his party members in Afyon. DHA photo

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu exchanged hard criticism on each other as both leaders announced their part squads in separate cities. 

Davutoğlu, who headed the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) consultancy and evaluation meeting in the western province of Afyon on Nov. 1, mocked with the recent resignation by lawmaker Emine Ülke Tarhan from her Republican People’s Party (CHP). 

Tarhan, a leading party dissident, resigned from the CHP on Oct. 31, issuing a statement severely criticizing CHP policies that she said were “detached” from the people and not helping the party come to power. 

“It is understood that the CHP administration will insist on its understanding of being the opposition, which is detached from our people’s sensitivities, with irresponsible calls, inconsistent rhetoric ... and uncertain policies,” Tarhan said, adding that she noticed the party would not change its “fatal choices.”

Reading a part of the statement to his party members, Davutoğlu said he fully agreed. 

“I would put my signature under this,” he said. 

He also criticized the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) for taking an irresponsible stance with calls for street action, mainly for Kobane, the Syrian border town resisting against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attacks.  

The CHP leader, for his side, criticized on the sidelines of a party camp with deputies in the Mediterranean province of Antalya that the government was carrying non-transparent talks with Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). 

“None of the parties trust each other,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, addressing both sides in the ongoing talks to bring a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue. 

“They are sitting on a table behind the doors,” he said. “Abdullah Öcalan speaks from on one side as [President ] Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Ahmet Davutoğlu speaks from the other,” he said, questioning the content of promises by both sides. 

In his opening speech, Kılıçdaroğlu said “The lifespan of this government is over.” 

He said he was also frustrated by Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters pass to Kobane via Turkey early on Nov. 1. 

 “I don’t like boots of foreign soldiers touching on Turkish soil,” he said. 

“I  regret to say that Turkey is not being ruled by reason,” he said, calling on Labor Minister Faruk Çelik to resign, following the recent mine disaster in Central Anatolia, which trapped 18 workers under soil on Oct. 28.