Turkey turned into AKP state: CHP head

Deniz Zeyrek – MERSİN

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Turkey has become a state of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), with all means of the Republic of Turkey, from its president to low-ranking government officials, working on behalf of the AKP, Republican People’s Party (CHP) head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said.

“The AKP has become a state in itself, and now we have a confrontation between an oppressive state and citizen advocates of democracy on the table,” Kılıçdaroğlu told daily Hürriyet on Oct. 3 on the sidelines of his first election rally in the southern province of Mersin.

Kılıçdaroğlu said there was a Turkish state with all its means and organs, from the president to the administrative officials of the lowest rank, working on behalf of the AKP.

“Civil servants and governors openly declare that they are AKP’s bureaucrats and governors. Standing with democracy, freedom, the rule of law, gender equality, ending poverty and reform policies has become harder. Citizens will vote between these two mindsets. In terms of oppression, the source is clear: the AKP,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

Kılıçdaroğlu said Turkey was not experiencing a normal democratic struggle and that voters should bear this in mind before the Nov. 1 election.

“All of us would want to wake up to a beautiful Turkey on the morning of Nov. 2. We want to wake up to a [new] Turkey,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, adding that the common desire of all people was to have a country with full democracy and an end to oppressive administration.

Kılıçdaroğlu also made remarks on the Kurdish peace process.

“[The Kurdish issue] is the main problem of Turkey. It is politics that should solve this problem. We have bills to propose in our roadmap [to solve this problem],” Kılıçdaroğlu said, stressing that the CHP would take the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) as the negotiating party, not Kandil. 

Kandil is a mountainous region in northern Iraq, where the headquarters of the outlawed Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) is. The KCK is an umbrella union of organizations that includes the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Kılıçdaroğlu said the AKP had become the source of instability in the country after the June 7 election.

“The increase in interest rates and the Turkish Lira/dollar exchange rate as well as the end of societal peace have shown that the AKP is the main reason for instability in Turkey,” he said.