‘We won’t let you become president’ campaign was created to stop Turkey’s rise: Erdoğan

ANKARA

AFP photo

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has blamed the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which he said was being controlled by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), for attempting to hamper Turkey’s growth with its stance targeting his aspirations for an unencumbered presidential system.

“The remark saying ‘We will not make you president,’ was to prevent the 2023 targets [of Turkey],” Erdoğan said in a speech delivered on Aug. 12 at a gathering with village heads, hinting at a convergence between his personal ambitions to become a president without fetters and the fate of the country.

Erdoğan issued his condemnation of the HDP during the meet-and-greet, criticizing party co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş for visiting European countries.

“The party controlled by the terrorist organization is seeking a solution in foreign capitals,” he said. 

The HDP receives votes in Turkey but is seeking a solution abroad instead of producing local and reasonable solutions, Erdoğan said, adding that the party was in self-denial. 

“An understanding, which has become estranged to its people and country, can in no way produce a solution to the current problems,” the president said.

He also said his remarks in autumn 2014 concerning the conflict in the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobane were distorted on purpose. It was U.S. President Barack Obama that warned Erdoğan during a phone conversation that “Kobane was almost falling,” but the HDP distorted the remarks, he stated.

Erdoğan objected to claims that he does not want a coalition government, in contrast to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.

“Forming a coalition government is my wish. This process is for 45 days,” he said.

If the political parties cannot form a coalition government before a 45-day deadline runs out on Aug. 23, the current government can go to the snap elections as a minority government, or the parliament will assign an election government, the president said.

Whichever way is chosen, the important thing is the country should continue in a strong position, he said.