CHP leader ‘non-existent,’ says Erdoğan

Burcu Purtul Uçar – ISTANBUL

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has chastised main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, saying his position was “almost non-existent.”

“From now on, the main opposition party’s leadership position is vacant for us, it is no longer valid,” Erdoğan said of the CHP leader on April 9 at an event in Istanbul, as the row between the two over Family Minister Sema Ramazanoğlu’s remarks on the Ensar Foundation escalated in the past week. 

“For us this person [Kılıçdaroğlu] is non-existent. I am talking as a constituent, as citizen Erdoğan. Since he does not have a criminal capacity, he is excused by us no matter what he says, what he does. This person’s situation is a medical case, not a political one. I have said [he is a] ‘political pervert’... When the main opposition party assigns someone with a political and humanitarian representation capability to that position, then it would also have an addressee,” added Erdoğan.

Kılıçdaroğlu had heavily criticized Ramazanoğlu for her remarks in defense of the Ensar Foundation – a highly debated foundation which dropped into Turkish politics after one of its local teachers was arrested on charges of sexual abuse of minors.

Upon Kılıçdaroğlu’s statements pointed at Ramazanoğlu, Erdoğan called the CHP leader a “political pervert” and added that Kılıçdaroğlu was “not the person who belonged in the position he holds.”

During his speech Erdoğan also reiterated his firm position on the fight against terror, saying, “All [terror groups] should be fought the same way.” 

“Some prestigious countries stand by terrorist groups, either tacitly or explicitly. And we tell them, ‘What you are helping is a terror group.’ There is no difference between the PKK [outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party], the PYD [Democratic Union Party] or the DHKP-C [the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front]. These are branches of the same body. The root is the same,” Erdoğan said.