Parliament to work ‘with or without you,’ PM tells CHP

Turkey’s prime minister has criticized opposition members who did not take their parliamentary oaths on Tuesday, telling his legislative group Thursday that the body would work with or without the opposition.

“They’re saying that I have to solve this issue. What can the prime minister do? Call the judges and give orders?” asked Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan while addressing his lawmakers Thursday.

Independent and main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, deputies refused to take their oaths on Tuesday to protest recent court decisions that continued the incarceration of their elected colleagues.

“Those who accuse the AKP [ruling Justice and Development Party] for the judiciary’s decisions act out of old habits. The judiciary might have taken orders from the executive in their time, but it will not take orders from anyone under our rule,” he said.

The comment elicited a swift reaction from CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. “We never [suggested that Erdoğan] should call the judiciary and give instructions to it. What we want is the implementation of universal law,” the CHP head said.

“Whether or not the opposition comes, there is nothing that will prevent Parliament from being active,” said Erdoğan. “And unlike the opposition’s claims, the commissions can very well operate without them.”

But Kılıçdaroğlu answered, saying that if the AKP violated the Constitution by creating a commission without the CHP, they would also violate regulations and join Parliament without first being sworn in.

“The people who boycotted the oath ceremony in Parliament still cannot accept the separation of powers. No one has the right to ignore the laws. Turkey is not a banana republic, it is a democratic and secular state,” Erdoğan said.

“The problem is Turkey’s problem, and it must be solved together. The opposition has to remain calm and come up with a reasonable solution,” said Erdoğan.

‘CHP losing esteem in eyes of the people’

For Erdoğan, the boycott would go down in the opposition’s history as an “unforgivable stain.”

The obstacle to the national will is not the AKP, said Erdoğan, noting that the opposition was continuously damaging its reputation in the eyes of the people.

“The [CHP] has misunderstood the message of the people. We categorize this period as disorientation. They are the ones hindering the national will. A boycott will get them nowhere,” the prime minister said.

“We want the CHP to immediately end this disorientation and resume its role as the main opposition,” he said.

Erdoğan also said the government “would not bow down to the dominance of the minority” – prompting Kılıçdaroğlu to retort that “first, they must learn what democracy is. A regime where the majority exerts pressure is not a democracy.”

The CHP is open to solutions, not a “logic of imposition,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

President Abdullah Gül has given the impression that he too wants a solution through compromise, the CHP chief said, but added that the prime minister had not expressed a similar desire.


/Hurriyet Daily News/