Main opposition CHP calls Erdoğan’s comments on Kılıçdaroğlu ‘a threat’

ANKARA

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy group leader Levent Gök has slammed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for “threatening” CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. 

“You will get into a state where you will not be able to step out,” Erdoğan had said, referring to Kılıçdaroğlu’s “justice march.”

“The leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party [AKP] and the ruling circles should know that the CHP will not bow down to these threats. The CHP is not a party that can be intimidated by pressure and threat,” Gök said on July 13 at a press conference in parliament.

Calling Erdoğan’s comments a threat, Gök stated the rhetoric used by the president were amounting to “rule by diktat.” 

“There is no explanation to the threats directed at the main opposition party and its leader,” he said. 

His comments came after Erdoğan criticized Kılıçdaroğlu for calling on citizens to join the 25-day-long “justice march” from Ankara to Istanbul, which ended with a massive rally on July 9.

“If you call on the people to take to the streets, it will be you who will not be able to step out in the end,” Erdoğan had said.

“The name of the justice sought in the streets is revenge. The end of this is vandalism. The legitimate grounds in the search for justice are well known,” he added.

CHP deputy group leader accuses panel head

CHP deputy group leader Levent Gök also criticized the report, arguing that the CHP has been on the front line against the coup attempt. Gök accused the panel head, Reşat Petek, of having close ties to FETÖ. 

“You are trying to escape from your FETÖ ties with your cheap discourse,” Gök said at a press conference in parliament on July 13. 

He added that the CHP members of the parliamentary panel will have a meeting with Parliament Speaker İbrahim Kahraman, and they will assess the report in an exclusive press conference.