Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Saturday said that his
ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and its ally the
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) will continue on their planned
course and dismissed the opposition split, in his first comment
regarding the fracturing of the opposition alliance.
“We decided not to speak on the issue until a second
development. As the AK Party, we will conduct the necessary
evaluations during our MYK (Central Administration Board) and MKYK
(Central Executive Committee and Central Decision Board) meetings
and then decide,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul.
He added he predicted that the six-party opposition coalition
would fall apart.
The public split on Friday in the alliance of opposition parties
followed months of simmering discord in the group and was seen by
analysts as a blow to opposition hopes of unseating Erdogan – who
has been in power for two decades.
Meral Akshener, leader of the center-right nationalist Good
Party (IP), the second-biggest in the alliance, announced Friday
the party was leaving the bloc.
She said that at a presidential candidate selection meeting this
week, five parties in the alliance proposed Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu,
leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), as their
candidate.
“Personal ambition was preferred to Türkiye,” Akshener said.
This was not what the Good Party was founded for, she added.
The 74-year-old former civil servant’s failure to light up
opinion polls had been causing divisions within the six opposition
parties for some time.
Akshener accused members of the alliance of pressuring her party
and defying the people’s will, adding that she proposed Mansur
Yavash and Ekrem Imamoglu, CHP mayors of the capital Ankara and
Istanbul, respectively, as candidates.
Yavash had recently indicated that he would accept the duty of a
presidential candidate if the opposition coalition would ask him
to, while Imamoglu’s candidacy was seen as risky because of an
ongoing judicial process.
He was sentenced in December to over two years imprisonment and
a ban from political office for insulting election officials
following his win four years ago.
Akshener’s announcement, just 10 weeks before the planned May 14
election, was not anticipated as the parties had been negotiating
with each other for a year.
After Akshener’s announcement, Yavash and Imamoglu posed in a
photo with Kilicdaroglu and stated that they would adhere to CHP
decisions.
Kilicdaroglu seemed unruffled by Akshener’s speech as he left a
meeting in Ankara. “Don’t worry, all the pieces will fall into
place,” he told journalists.
Kilicdaroglu has said there is no room for political games in
the alliance and signaled that more parties could join the
bloc.
Before the splinter, the CHP, Felicity Party (SP), IP, Future
Party (GP), Democrat Party (DP) and the Democracy and Progress
Party (DEVA) formed the opposition.
Opposition leaders said they will announce their joint candidate
to challenge Erdoğan on March 6. IP officials said that Akshener
would not attend Monday’s meeting.
A staunch nationalist and a skillful orator, Akshener, a former
interior minister, is one of the few prominent women in domestic
politics.
Separately, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), a key actor in
the bid to defeat Erdogan on May 14, called on the opposition to
unite around democracy, justice and freedom.
The third-biggest party with 12% support nationally, the HDP is
not part of the alliance. But in 2019 its supporters helped the
alliance win mayoral elections in Istanbul, Ankara and other
cities.
HDP co-leader Mithat Sancar said after an extraordinary meeting
of the HDP senior ranks that the party is still reconsidering a
previous decision to field a presidential candidate.
The five-party opposition coalition met on Saturday at the
headquarters of the SP, after which Kilicdaroglu announced: “We
continue our path with the same faith and determination.”
In a joint written statement following the 4.5-hour meeting, the
parties said: “Our goal is a victory without a loser. In this
context, as we decided in our previous meeting, we will meet again
on Monday, March 6, hosted by the Felicity Party. We will share
with the public the final statement on our common presidential
candidate and the transition process road map in the 28th term
Parliament and 13th presidential elections.”
Türkiye heads to a critical election on May 14 three months
after a devastating earthquake hit several provinces and claimed
over 45,000 lives.
Erdogan this week dismissed the speculation that the election
might be postponed because of the disaster and said the vote would
go ahead as planned.
Discussion about this post