PM Erdoğan highlights good relationship with outgoing President Gül

KAYSERİ

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (L) and President Abdullah Gül shake hands during the latter’s farewell visit to the Prime Minister’s Office. AA photo

During a rally held on Aug. 8 presidential hopeful Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan preferred emphasizing the deeply rooted comradery between him and outgoing President Abdullah Gül, blaming the opposition for trying to drive a wedge between them.

“We had a successful term with Mr. Gül, in extreme harmony,” Erdoğan said, while addressing people in Gül’s hometown.

“Of course, those who could not bear this process have constantly sown seeds of discord,” Erdoğan said, using an idiom, which means driving a wedge between two sides.

“Due to what we have done for our country and our state, they have tried to set each of us against the other one,” he said, suggesting one of those people was Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli.

According to Erdoğan, unlike him, Bahçeli and main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, as well as Kılıçdaroğlu’s predecessor, Deniz Baykal, are obsessed with holding the leadership of their parties, although they could not manage their parties to success.

“They are not taking this road to be successful. They are taking the road only to sit on that chair. Some of them laid in ambush. They worked hard to put discord in our party. Thank God, they could never manage this,” Erdoğan said.