Turkish PM says election results prove AKP 'backbone of Turkey'

ANKARA

DHA Photo

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu laid emphasis on his Justice and the Development Party’s (AKP) "victory" in the June 7 elections, which resulted with the loss of its parliamentary majority and the Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) crossing the notorious 10 percent threshold.

During the traditional balcony speech at the party’s headquarters in Ankara, Davutoğlu stressed the significance of the “national will,” adding that the AKP had made history with the election results. 

“Everyone should know that the AKP is the winner of this election. No one should take a victory from an election it lost. We sent deputies to the parliament from 76 provinces, and the first from six regions is the AKP,” said Davutoğlu in his party’s balcony speech, which became associated with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his time in the prime minister’s office.

“The main opposition party, whose leader just declared a victory, could not find representation in 37 provinces while the third [had nothing] in 32 provinces. The fourth party, which claimed to have a landslide victory, is non-existent in 56 provinces,” he said.

“No one should worry. We will take every precaution within this political framework to maintain stability and the comfort that AKP cadres have provided in the last 12-13 years,” he said.

Davutoğlu said the June 7 election had proved that the AKP was the backbone of Turkey. 

“This election has shown that the backbone of Turkey is the AKP. The AKP is the only party that is in all of the regions, all provinces and embraces all of the citizens,” said Davutoğlu, asking the crowd before the AKP headquarters in Ankara whether or not they would continue to bind the country’s east and west. 

Still, in his first election as the AKP chairman, Davutoğlu oversaw a sharp, nine-point decrease compared to the 2011 polls and lost the parliamentary majority to form a single-party government. 

Davutoğlu said they would do everything possible to prevent a loss of the country’s gains achieved in the past 13 years during the one-party government of the AKP. 

“As the AKP, we have stood on guard for the continuation of this state, the prosperity of this nation and the peace of the homeland. We will continue to stand guard,” Davutoğlu said. 

The prime minister added that they would continue to embrace all citizens, regardless of which party they voted for in the polls. 

He also said they would evaluate the messages from the elections results as a party.