Turkey's Opposition Party Rejects PM Erdogan On Mavi Marmara

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, gave an interview to Turkey's Daily News:

Remarks of Kılıçdaroğlu on the Mavi Marmara humanitarian aid ship assault are quite interesting. The CHP holds the government party responsible because of the deaths on board. And the CHP asserts that the ship was sent to the area despite Israeli warnings and the government knew it. Kılıçdaroğlu claims some dark forces were involved in the crisis and the AKP aimed to change political agenda in the country. He asked the release of information that has been held so far.


Kılıçdaroğlu kept on criticizing the government on the Hamas issue as well. Of the AKP siding with Hamas is a deadly mistake, Kılıçdaroğlu said.

Hamas is not a political organization and regarded as a terrorist organization in the West. It is not our policy to intervene in some other’s internal issues and support one particular party against others, he added.

Keep in mind that this is not a statement of some small political group trying to garner some media attention--on the contrary, Kılıçdaroğlu's party is currently leading Erdogan's party in the polls:

A new poll shows Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's governing party is trailing in advance of next year's elections.

The Sonar Arastirma survey, which has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2 percentage points, shows Mr. Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) at 31.1 percent and the Republican People's Party (CHP) at 33.5 percent.

Erdogan has overreached himself, not only in terms of the flotilla and the Mavi Marmara, but also in terms of the shift towards Iran. That explains some of the backtracking Turkey has been doing, including trying to stop the Lebanon flotilla.

Iran is currently feeling the anger of its people toward the government.
The Turkish government is wary of going down the same road.

Technorati Tag: Turkey and Erdogan and Kılıçdaroğlu.