From Kılıçdaroğlu to Erdoğan: I am Already on the Street

* Photograph: Murat Kaynak - Ankara / AA

Click to read the article in Turkish

Main opposition party Republican People's Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has responded to President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's statement of "He is making a call to people to take to the streets."

Speaking ahead of the Party Assembly Meeting of the CHP today (December 18), Kılıçdaroğlu made the following remarks:

"Erdoğan says, 'If you take to the streets... If you do such and such...' I am already on the streets. I am not like you, I am one of the common citizens.

"I live in an ordinary house while you live in a palace. I go out on the street, play cards, play backgammon with shopkeepers while you cannot go out on the street unless you have 3 thousand people accompanying you.

"Who are you to decide whether I will live or not? Who are you? Take me to these squares and let us sit and talk. Let us talk about who is on the side of citizens and the right and who is not.

"If I drank tee, which cost 4 thousand Turkish Lira, as you do, I would not be able to go out on the street anyway. If I did such a thing, then, I would not be able to look at the people in the face."

Erdoğan said, "You cannot find chance to escape"

In a speech that he held on December 16, President Erdoğan made the following remarks on Kılıçdaroğlu:

"They try to lead the nation to the streets at every opportunity. Look, let me tell you something. A shameless person invites the public to the street, look at this immoral person, the judiciary will surely give the necessary answer.

"Here is not Paris. If you attempt to do something similar to Gezi, if you think that you can work thanks to someone inviting people to the streets on a TV screen, you should know that just as the nation made life unbearable for FETÖ members and their servants on July 15, we will do it again.

"You might have escaped through the tanks and gone to Bakırköy Courthouse on July 15. This time, you cannot find the chance to escape.

"You cannot gain anything by calling the people and unions of this nation to the streets. We will not let that happen. We will do what is necessary."

CLICK - From CHP to Erdoğan: Street is a Right, Street is Liberty

(EKN/SD)