President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday challenged main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairperson Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu to run against him as the candidate of the six-party coalition in the upcoming elections in 2023.
Speaking at the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) group meeting in Parliament in the capital Ankara, Erdoğan said: "If you are confident in yourself, if you are so sure of the correctness of your political style, if you want to take responsibility for the future of your country and nation ... confront me in the election."
Regarding the six-party opposition coalition, Erdoğan said that it wants to rule Türkiye, but "there are almost seven months left until the election date, and there are no presidential candidates yet. We wonder how those who can't even nominate a candidate today will represent the rights, interests and future of our country and nation in the dog-eat-dog world politics of tomorrow."
“If you can act with your own free will, confront us in the elections; Let our experiences, visions, programs, projects and excitement compete,” he added.
Erdoğan also commented on Kılıçdaroğlu's recent call to his party's members. "Either be with me or get out of my way," Kılıçdaroğlu had told CHP members as he asked for their support on the road to the 2023 elections.
"In fact, we wonder how those who do not dare to appear before the nation and openly say, 'I am a presidential candidate,' can reform the country with a revolutionary approach in solving problems. Mr. Kemal, I don't know what kind of revolutionary you are, but I am a conservative revolutionary," Erdoğan said in response to the center-left CHP leader's recent statements presenting himself as a reformer for the future of the country if he is elected.
The president also criticized Kılıçdaroğlu for traveling to the United States ahead of the elections.
“There are unknown, dark sides of this trip,” Erdoğan said, adding that it is the CHP's duty to make the party leader account for his "dubious" activities in the U.S. since it sent him there.
The next presidential and parliamentary elections in Türkiye are expected to be held in June 2023. The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the ruling AK Party are partners under the People's Alliance, with Erdoğan serving as the alliance's candidate for the upcoming presidential elections.
One of the main promises of the opposition, formed by the CHP, Felicity Party (SP), the Good Party (IP), Future Party (GP), Democrat Party (DP) and the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA), is a return to a “Strengthened Parliamentary System” if elected.
The proposed system also limits the president to a single seven-year term, requires that the president sever their ties to political parties and prohibits them from joining a political party after their term.
It has been nearly five years since Türkiye switched from a parliamentary system to the current presidential system after the majority of Turkish voters opted to create the new system. Turkish voters narrowly endorsed an executive presidency on April 16, 2017, with a referendum of 51.4% votes in favor. The official transition to the new system took place when Erdoğan was sworn in as the president in Parliament after the 2018 general elections, which he won by a majority of 52.6% votes.
On the other side, Erdoğan fended off criticisms on the recently announced disinformation law. The Press Law, known as the "anti-disinformation regulation," was approved by the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) last week along with a bill proposed to amend certain laws.
On Tuesday, the CHP asked the Constitutional Court to suspend the law's most criticized article, Article 29, which defines the jail sentence.
"Lie and slander campaigns that target our country's interests, our nation's values, our people's confidentiality are a sort of terrorist attack," Erdoğan said.
The new media law includes up to three years in jail for the dissemination of false information about the country's security and public order.
Social media has become a source of "slander, threats, blackmail and dangers" against individuals and institutes, Erdoğan pointed out, adding the law was an "urgent necessity" to combat "disinformation."
European countries as well as the U.S. also impose similar measures, the Turkish leader contended.
“The law, publicly known as social media regulation, adopted by the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye last week, is already in place and being applied in many parts of the world, particularly in developed countries," he said.
"Our aim is to ensure the peace and security of our country and our citizens in the social media sphere as well as in the physical realm."
