Opposition parties provoking us to speak provocatively against ISIL, PM Erdoğan complains

ANKARA

AA Photo

Turkey’s two main opposition parties are trying to pressure the government “to speak provocatively against ISIL [The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant],” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, referring to the militant group responsible for seizing 80 Turkish citizens, including Mosul Consul General Öztürk Yılmaz, in northern Iraq on June 12.

“Why do the opposition and its proponents [in the] media apply this pressure? They are adding fuel to the fire as 80 of our citizens are held by a [militant] organization. This is bloody politics. This is ignominious politics. God forbid, they now lack reason and conscience that they wait for something bad to happen to our 80 citizens in Mosul, so that they can criticize the government [again],” Erdoğan said, in an address to the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) provincial chairs on June 25.

"Turkey is making efforts with north and central Iraqi government and international community to free 80 Turkish citizens captured by ISIL," he added.

On June 17, the 9th Heavy Penal Court in Ankara placed a gag order to prevent the Turkish media from reporting on issues relating to the kidnapping of the 80 Turkish citizens in Mosul.

In his speech, Erdoğan also turned his criticism on the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). 

“Before their current chairs, the CHP and the MHP at least had an identity. Now they have been turned into opportunist parties with no identity,” he said. 

Erdoğan also slammed MHP chair Devlet Bahçeli for suggesting that he will be jailed “in one year.” 

“God willing, we will oust you through elections and get even [with you] in one year, be sure of that,” Bahçeli said at a speech on June 21, adding “You’ll wish for your days in Pınarhisar,” referring to the prison where Erdoğan was jailed for four months in 1999 for reciting a poem that was included in Turkish school books. 

“Nothing can intimidate us. Do you think we will be succumbed to blackmailing like you were?” Erdoğan said, while going on to again recite the rest of the same poem.