Erdoğan: President Cannot Be Detached from Party

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has replied to questions in the program of “Grand Meeting with the Youth” in the joint broadcast of A Haber-Atv held in Presidential Palace.

Erdoğan responded to questions as to parliamentary immunity, transformation in Sur, presidential system occupational condition of handicapped people, and visa waiver.

Parliamentary immunity

Here are some headlines from Erdoğan’s speech:

“On one hand they say ‘let’s do this’. If you say ‘let’s do this’, then pave the way for them to be brought to justice, and let all of them be tried. Is it meaningful to run away from this? No, because even if you are not tried today, it will happen tomorrow. When? When the deputyship term is over, they will be tried anyway. There is no escape from this”.

Transformation in Sur

Erdoğan stating there are as many as 160,168 registered buildings within Sur said that his wish is to deliver these buildings to their owners after restoration of them is done, however, it is not possible for all citizens to have those.

Party member president*

Erdoğan upon a question as to “party member president” system reminded that he had offered “party member president system instead of presidential system”.

“As the leader of a party which I founded, can the party members live detached from you? No, they can’t. Do you know what it’s like? It is like detaching a mother from her child. There are two or three countries in the world like us. In rest of them, their links with their parties continue and that power reflects on the country”.

Handicapped people being judge, prosecutor

Erdoğan as to handicapped people said, “Indeed there are some handicapped fellows among them whose disabilities don’t permit them to do some jobs such as being judge or prosecutor. Surely a visually handicapped judge or hearing impaired judge in the same way cannot pass judgement. But for instance, if one has issues with the legs or arms, there is no problem in being judge or prosecutor. For instance, in the foreign affairs, if a person has problems with standing, then it is not meaningful to be ambassador or consul general”.

Visa waiver

“Our stance is very important. They might grant or not the visa, it is not important at all. I believe, they will grant Turkey visa sooner or later but even if they don’t, I personally as President of Turkey don’t worry about it”, said Erdoğan.(EKN/TK)

* According to Turkey's Constitution, presidents must be neutral to all political parties and cannot have any links to neither of them.