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In an interview to state-run Anadolu Agency, Minister of Youth and Sports Akif Çağatay Kılıç has evaluated the article included in the constitutional amendment draft proposing to bring down the age of candidacy to 18.
“Young people say ‘we have rights here as well’. It doesn’t mean that this right will be exercised all the time. There are 57 countries in which the age of candidacy is 18, why shouldn’t it be so in Turkey? Shouldn’t we trust our youngsters? We trust our young people in every matter”.
In his interview, Kılıç stated that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government is in favor of freedoms:
“We have never become like the ones who established ‘persuasion chambers’*. We have always been in favor of freedoms and democracy”. (HK/TK)
* “Persuasion chambers” were established during February 28, 1997 military memorandum, mostly in universities, to talk women with headscarves into removing their headscarves at public institutions.
