Buyukanit: No Effects on Elections
Büyükanit was answering questions of the press at the Central Army House, where a reception was being held in honour of the Northern Cyprus Turkish Republic Armed Forces Day.
Conjecture: no effect
Although Büyükanit had claimed that he would only talk about Cyprus, he then replied to questions about whether the 27 April "e-memorandum" had affected the election results:
"We do not have any research companies working for us. We cannot say anyting without concrete data. I will not answer this question. But I do not think [it affected the result]. This is based on conjecture rather than data."
When Büyükanit was reminded that he and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would come together at the meeting of the Supreme Military Court, he said: "These kinds of meetings will pass as they did before."
Büyükanit declined to answer questions on the proposal of Prof. Dr. Zafer Üskül, AKP MP, to take the recognition of Kemalism out of the constitution.
DTP to form group
Meanwhile, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) has applied to the president's office of the Turkish Grand Assembly in order to form a group within parliament.
In the application, Siirt MP Osman Özcelik stated that the group would not boycott presidential elections, but that this was in order to support parliament, rather than the Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Open to offers?
Former AKP MP Abdüllatif Sener has said in an interview with the "Milliyet" newspaper that he has chosen to teach at university. He added thought that it was not forbidden for university lecturers to do politics.
Sarigül calling for opposition
Mustafa Sarigül, the well-known mayor of Sisli, Istanbul, has mobilised around 50 mayors of the Republican People's Party (CHP) in order to call for party chairperson Deniz Baykal's resignation. Artvin mayor Emin Özgün has called for Baykal's resignation by 9 September, the anniversary of the party's foundation.(NZ/AG)