CHP leader slams Erdoğan for ‘delaying’ coalition talks

ANKARA

DHA photo

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan should cease his delaying tactics and provide a mandate to form a government, according to Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

“The delay is not a natural one. Mr. President needs to give the mandate at once,” Kılıçdaroğlu said late on July 6.

“It is not right to have Turkey ruled by a provisional government for a long time. The government needs to be formed at once. If elections will be held, then there is no meaning in waiting for so long. If a coalition cannot be formed, then elections need to be rapidly held,” Kılıçdaroğlu said in response to a question concerning debates over Erdoğan’s refusal to provide a mandate for the formation of a new government despite the passage of a month since the June 7 elections.

“We are not saying that this problem will not be solved; every problem is to be solved through reason. The state cannot be governed with prejudice and grudges. What matters is forming the government at once,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, emphasizing that a provisional government cannot continue for a long time and cannot make lasting decisions, particularly at a time when Turkey has giant problems both inside and outside of the country.

Kılıçdaroğlu also said Turkey’s politicians should leave behind debates over the election of the new parliamentary speaker.

“The parliamentary speaker election is over. Politics needs to get rid of old diseases. I have called him [new Parliamentary Speaker İsmet Yılmaz] too and congratulated him,” Kılıçdaroğlu said on July 7 amid continued opposition finger-pointing over the parliamentary speaker’s election last week. 

“Is his [Yılmaz’s] legitimacy controversial? No. The rest of the matter needs to be left to the discretion of the nation. There is a need to get rid of this unproductive understanding,” he told reporters as he hosted a group of subcontracted workers at parliament.

“Really, I’m tired of gossip,” he added.

His remarks openly reflecting his weariness followed controversial statements by his predecessor, Deniz Baykal, who recently lost the race for the parliamentary speaker’s office, leading to disagreements over incidents leading up to the election of the speaker.

Speaking in an interview with CNNTürk late July 6, Baykal said a senior executive from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) had informed the CHP that his group would support Baykal’s candidacy in the elections. Yet, Baykal’s remarks were immediately denied by the MHP’s Yusuf Halaçoğlu, who then immediately joined the television program via telephone.

“We have announced our principles,” recalling that any possible coalition scenario would have to embrace their 14 principles, Kılıçdaroğlu said, calling on other parties to announce their principles too. 
“Let’s sit and talk. Democracy is the regime of conciliation, not of the imposition,” he added.