Erdoğan says CHP leader does not belong in position he holds

ISTANBUL – Anadolu Agency

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan heavily criticized main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu for his recent remarks, saying that he was “not the person who belonged in the position he holds.” 

“This person is not the man of the position that he holds. There many phrases that would fit him, but my decency does not allow me to use these phrases. … May God protect Turkish politics from figures like him,” said Erdoğan as he answered the questions of press members while leaving a mosque after Friday prayer.

Erdoğan’s statements came as tensions flared up between him and Kılıçdaroğlu after the former asked “What will we do about political perverts?” referring to the latter for his recent row with Family Minister Sema Ramazanoğlu over the Ensar Foundation.

“I have previously said ‘he cannot even be an apprentice’ about him, he really could not be an apprentice. … [I]n fact you know he became a candidate [to lead CHP] a day after saying ‘I do not consider candidacy’ to journalists when he left Baykal,” Erdoğan said as he cited former CHP leader Deniz Baykal’s leaked sex tape that caused him to resign in 2010. 

Erdoğan also touched upon the arrest of the Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation’s (MKE) weapons factory’s head, Mustafa Tanrıverdi. Tanrıverdi was arrested on April 7 for allegedly trying to sell weapon designs to a U.S. company.

“These are character issues. Things like this may happen. He was arrested now and it is good that such a process was initiated.  

Tanrıverdi was arrested on charges of receiving bribes, exploiting state secrets and disloyalty to state services, after a tip-off from a weapons trader businessman, identified as K.K., according to daily Hürriyet.