Felicity Party leader vows to ‘keep telling truth’ despite election defeat

ANKARA

Felicity Party (SP) leader Temel Karamollaoğlu, whose party only won 1.3 percent of the votes in the June 24 elections, has admitted defeat in the polls but vowed they will “keep on telling the truth.”

“Surely we haven’t reached what we aimed for. We will make the necessary assessment on that. We will discuss thoroughly how we can reach the people that we haven’t been able to reach,” Karamollaoğlu said on June 28, in his first public speech after the June 24 elections.

“Just because it doesn’t suit populist politics I will not refrain from telling the truth,” he added.

Karamollaoğlu’s party is a consequent party of the National Outlook (Milli Görüş) Movement, with which many prominent members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) had relations more than a decade ago.

It entered the June 24 parliamentary elections in an alliance with the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and İYİ (Good) Party, winning two seats in the 600-seat parliament after receiving 1.3 percent of the votes.

“Even though we could not achieve what we expected, we have seen that we have created a movement. This is very important. The segment that everybody focused on was the SP,” he said.

Stating that opposition parties carried out their propaganda activities under the state of emergency, Karamollaoğlu said the conditions were unequal and in favor of the AKP.

“I am seeing this as a responsibility to tell the government: The state of emergency should be lifted. The rule of law should be reinstated. Basic rights should be ensured. The independence of the media should be guaranteed,” he said.