CHP leader urges AKP to file complaint against him

ANKARA

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The Justice and Development Party (AKP) aids terrorist organizations, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said, calling on the ruling party officials to file a complaint about him so that he can reveal the evidence proving such a link.

“This party’s [AKP] executives are the ones who aid and abet all the terrorist organizations in the Middle East and Turkey and cause trouble for Turkey. Why do they not file a complaint about me? I asked them to do it so that I can reveal all the evidence. They are afraid because they know they are guilty,” Kılıçdaroğlu said before addressing a party assembly on Nov. 11.

Kılıçdaroğlu also criticized the government for not following the rule of law, saying the AKP was using its power stemming from the state of emergency to change the regime. 
 
“Those in the ruling position have no right to use their power to change the regime. If they deviate from the law … trauma and clashes occur in the state,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

The CHP is here to defend basic rights and freedoms in Turkey, Kılıçdaroğlu said, criticizing the investigation filed against the party over an assembly bulletin published on Nov. 6. 

The statement of the CHP party assembly underlined four main points that included criticism of the arrest of pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party (HDP) officials and lawmakers, a statement on the rising oppression against the press and intellectuals, revelations of human rights violations and unlawful trials following the July 15 coup, as well as a complaint about the restriction of basic rights. 

Kılıçdaroğlu reiterated his party assembly’s main objections to the AKP’s imposition of decree laws after July 15, arguing that the AKP had violated the principle of the supremacy of law. 

“Justice is for everybody – it has to be. We never said we don’t follow the rules of the court. But they did. We have never said we don’t follow the rules of the Constitutional Court, or don’t respect it. But they did. We defend justice; they don’t. We have a difference that is black and white [compared to them],” he said. 

Kılıçdaroğlu also recalled Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım’s earlier comments on the debate over the presidential regime during which the head of government said Turkey would be divided if they do not shift to a presidential system.

“What is crucial is the words of the one that has ruled the country for 14 years: Turkey is on the verge of division [they said]. What kind of a government is it that brings Turkey to the verge of a division?” Kılıçdaroğlu said. 

“At the end of our statement, we wrote, ‘No to the coup, no to dictatorship, long live democracy;’ they feel uncomfortable with that. We wrote, ‘We will not let Turkey be divided;’ they felt uncomfortable with that, too. You say you will divide the country; we say we will unite it. Why do you feel uncomfortable with that?” he added.  

Both President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Yıldırım harshly slammed the CHP for its four-point statement.