CHP leader blames Erdoğan’s ‘400 deputies’ aspirations for violence

ANKARA

AA photo

Turkey’s main social democratic leader has condemned the latest deadly attack by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), while directly pointing his finger at President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for focusing on his own political aspirations amid the killing of people.

“Dağlıca hurt our hearts deeply. Every day, it’s the same grief. Damn those who make us experience this grief and who are nourished by blood and tears,” Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said in the early morning of Sept. 7, after the PKK attacked an armed convoy the day before in the Dağlıca area of Hakkari province, near the Iraqi border, in what would be the bloodiest assault since the collapse of a cease-fire in July. 

“The [feeling of] shame of the president, who [demands] 400 deputies even in this environment where our hearts burn with news of martyrs every day, is enough for the entire country. What 400 deputies, man… For the sake of it, you turned the country into a lake of blood and you left mothers without children and left children orphans. You don’t have even a bit of conscience,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

In the run-up to the June 7 parliamentary election, Erdoğan held a series of large public rallies during which he called for “400 lawmakers” so that Turkey could adopt the presidential system. In the meetings, Erdoğan strongly slammed all oppositional parties and their election promises.

As news from Dağlıca was coming, Erdoğan said the situation “would have been very different” if a party, namely the Justice and Development Party (AKP), had received 400 deputies so that it could change the constitution.

Erdoğan was the founding leader of the AKP, which was established in 2001. He served as the country’s prime minister from early 2003 until 2014, when he was elected president.