CHP lists five musts for coalition

Okan Konuralp – ANKARA

DHA photo

Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has listed education, foreign policy, the Kurdish peace process, the constitution and economic issues as his party’s conditions for a coalition with the Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Speaking at his party’s Central Executive Board (MYK) July 29, Kılıçdaroğlu reportedly stressed the five most important items for them to form a coalition with the AKP, claiming that if there was no agreement on the issues in line with the CHP’s request, no coalition would be formed. 

The current Turkish education system needs to be revamped in line with the eight years of the non-stop system, instead of the AKP’s controversial 4+4+4 system in which children can leave school after just four years, he said, adding that a production-based economic model, rather than a consuming one, needed to be adopted.

“In this regard, overcoming income inequality should be among the priority aims,” Kılıçdaroğlu reportedly said.

The two parties’ delegations most recently met on July 28 in their third meeting under the leadership of Haluk Koç from the CHP and Ömer Çelik from the AKP. The delegations are expected to meet today and most likely a couple of times more until the end of this week before submitting a general report to the two chairmen.

Noting the latest developments in Turkey’s foreign policy, especially regarding airstrikes conducted against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria and outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) camps in northern Iraq, Kılıçdaroğlu said the country needed a new vision in foreign policy that would approach the Middle East, the European Union and other parts of the world from a peaceful perspective. 

The CHP leader was quoted as saying by sources that the parliament needed to be defined as the sole arena for solving the “Kurdish problem,” while also stating that a new constitution and the impartiality of the judiciary were critical.