CHP leader threatens system change with civil war, bloodshed
by Daily Sabah
ISTANBULMay 12, 2016 - 12:00 am GMT+3
by Daily Sabah
May 12, 2016 12:00 am
In a speech on Wednesday, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu threatened those who carry out work for a new constitution that includes a presidential system with civil war.
Regarding the increasing debates on a presidential system, Kılıçdaroğlu criticized the work to include a presidential system in a new constitution and said, "Such a system cannot be realized without shedding blood."
Commenting on Kılıçdaroğlu's words, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Parliamentary Group Deputy Chairman Bülent Turan said he showed attitude that is unbecoming of a statesman and described his speech as warmongering.
"We wonder what Kılıçdaroğlu will do. Will he execute deputies and citizens who support the presidential system? Will he gather them into gas chambers like Nazis?" he said in a written statement hours after Kılıçdaroğlu's speech.
Kılıçdaroğlu became the CHP chairman after former CHP Chairman Deniz Baykal resigned from the post in May 2010 after a sex tape scandal. Last month, Baykal said that people who want to solve the case should speak to Kılıçdaroğlu. In 2014, Kılıçdaroğlu claimed that he saw a video of then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan watching sex tapes of Baykal. Due to this, the Ankara Prosecutor's Office sent an invitation to Kılıçdaroğlu to testify, but Kılıçdaroğlu's office in Parliament said he would not reply to the prosecutors call.
Sources in Parliament said that he had problems with mixed party voices on the decision to lift parliamentarians' immunity. According to sources, Kılıçdaroğlu touched on discussions by the CHP on lifting immunities during the CHP's closed group meeting in Parliament last month where he told deputies: "Stating different views is not appropriate. You having attitudes against it leads us into a difficult situation where the public no longer trusts us."
Regarding support for the CHP, Ankara's Objective Research Center (ORC) recently conducted a public survey April 7-9 with CHP voters in which 59 percent of respondents were not happy with Kılıçdaroğlu as party chairman, believing that Kılıçdaroğlu has failed to be an adequate party leader.
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