CHP ‘ready to make sacrifices,’ Kılıçdaroğlu says
ANKARA
The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu called out on the leaders of opposition parties to unite in the upcoming elections to be held on June 24, stating that the date is “a date to gain democracy.”
“I am calling on the leaders of all political parties. We are ready to make sacrifices. We, as the CHP, are already making sacrifices for Turkey to reach the light. We are ready. We love our country,” Kılıçdaroğlu said on April 24, addressing his party group in parliament.
“We have to struggle together to return to the founding principles of the Republic [of Turkey] to clean the state that has become dirty,” he added.
Following the snap election announcement, the CHP group has been holding meetings with opposition parties, which have objected to the constitutional amendment that stipulates the executive presidential shift in Turkey’s regime.
While the political parties are expected to submit their alliance protocols to the Supreme Board of Elections within a week, the opposition’s alliance meetings have run-up.
Criticizing the current state of democracy in Turkey, Kılıçdaroğlu said opposition parties “are obliged to provide a wide alliance and wide association.”
“This period is not a period of you or me. This is not a period of party A or party B. This period is a time to act together to save the homeland,” he said.
“June 24 is not an election of parties. It is not a field for a personal fight. These elections are not elections for a personal pursuit of the chair. We have to bring together whoever has come together for democracy,” he added.
“We will first exceed 301 [seats in the parliament] and then we will take the presidency with 60 percent of votes,” he said.
As the CHP is seeking to find a solution to unite different oppositional segments in Turkey, Kılıçdaroğlu listed “nationalist, conservative, social, liberal and socialist,” democrats calling on them “to come together and build a republic again.”
In the hours the newspaper was going to the press, the party has convened its Party Assembly where the candidate of the party and its alliance will be determined.
