The Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairman and Nation Alliance’s presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said the opposition block would win the upcoming elections as they unite. Hurriyet Daily News reports on March 21, 2023.
“We will unite and win. But against whom?” he asked on March 20 in a video message on Twitter.
“I have been saying for a long time that I am trying to unite the country to become a winning player. So why are we uniting, what are we trying to gain? Are we uniting against [President] Recep Tayyip Erdoğan? Are we going to spend so much effort on such a small goal? No,” he said.
“I am the person who will lead the restorative, compensatory, unifying, embracing leadership and prepare the environment for the next generation leaders of the future,” he said. The CHP leader suggested that the democracy, economy, justice system and freedoms were under threat by the current government.
“We will send Erdoğan, this is the easiest of our goals. Our main goal is much bigger. We will create the conditions that will build a competitive Türkiye,” he said.
Türkiye is not competing with the world at the moment, Kılıçdaroğlu stated.
“There is a single criterion that shows whether we are good at the competition or not. Are you gaining or losing? This can be understood in two ways, can you create a new level of prosperity, or can you achieve this prosperity by creating a complete generation of peace? If you earn through competition, your nation’s standard, purchasing power and happiness will increase. Is yours increasing, my dear nation? Unfortunately, we are weak in competition,” he said.
Kılıçdaroğlu also criticized the negotiations of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) with the New Welfare Party that aimed to cooperate for upcoming elections.
“The palace power and those who set out with it showed that they were ready to make the most basic rights of women a matter of bargaining for a few votes,” the CHP leader said.
“They try to throw away the simplest gains of women. The target there is the young conservative women with headscarves. They want to oppress these young women, to control them. We watch them with horror,” he said.