Opposition leader: Erdoğan should urgently leave PM's office

ANKARA

Devlet Bahçeli’s comments reiterated the major opposition parties’ argument that President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s membership of Parliament has ended, according to the Constitution. AA Photo

The Republic of Turkey does not legally have a government at the moment because the prime minister’s position drops after being elected president, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has suggested.

Bahçeli’s comments reiterate the major opposition parties’ argument that President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s membership of Parliament has ended, in line with the Constitution.

“The signatures that are signed, the appointments that are made and the decisions that are made have no legality or legitimacy,” Bahçeli said at a press conference yesterday. “I am warning that Erdoğan should immediately leave the Prime Ministry office. I am warning everybody. The Republic of Turkey is facing a civil and unarmed coup."

Although the final results of the Aug. 10 election, which saw Erdoğan win by 52 percent, were announced by the Supreme Election Board (YSK) on Aug. 15 and the president-elect mandate was consecutively handed over to the parliamentary speaker by the YSK president, the results have yet to be published by the Official Gazette.

The Official Gazette is published by the Directorate General of Development of Legislation and Publications, which is a body working under the Prime Ministry.

While defending their statements that Erdoğan is no longer the prime minister, both the MHP and main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) argument relies on Article 101 of the Constitution, which states: “If the president-elect is a member of a party, his/her relationship with their party shall be severed and their membership in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey shall cease.”

“In addition, Erdoğan has already been preparing to hold rallies in his capacity as president in order to work parallel with the AKP,” Bahçeli also said, prompting a journalist to ask whether he was planning “counter-rallies.”

“After his intentions become clear, as he plans to hold rallies in 82 provinces after being elected president in line with his earlier habit; the MHP will hold rallies wherever Mr. Erdoğan holds a rally – at the same venue, on the same day and hour,” Bahçeli responded.