Erdoğan Says They May Not 'Let Opposition Mayors Work'

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President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke yesterday (June 12) at his party's parliamentary group, making remarks on the S-400 row with the US and the June 23 repeat elections for the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

Ahead of the İstanbul election rerun, Erdoğan said that they already won in İstanbul and Ankara as they have the majority in the municipal councils and won the most district municipalities in the two cities.

"We shouldn't be mistaken; we didn't lose in Ankara and İstanbul, we won in both places.

"Did we get the overwhelming majority of the districts? We did in both of them.

"In the municipal councils, where are the places to take decisions, do we have an overwhelming majority in both İstanbul and Ankara? We have.

"Do we have all the commissions? We have."

Hence a mayor's "mobility" depends on the councils and commissions, he won't be able to take the steps he wanted as long as he doesn't get support from those bodies, Erdoğan argued.

"If you do a right thing, they let you work. When you don't do a right thing, they will of course won't let you work. This is how it is.

"Can we say right now, 'We want to make a change in the Constitution but the CHP (Republican People's Party) is blocking us'? No, we can't. Why? Because it is already its job to make you not work."

In the repeat election, citizens will only vote for the mayor, hence the AKP will preserve the majority in the municipal council.

'S-400 deal completed'

Erdoğan said the purchase of the S-400 air defense systems from Russia is completed.

"I am not saying 'Turkey will buy the S-400 defense systems,' it has bought them. We completed this business. Apart from their moderate price, we also got the word for joint production. Inshallah [the missiles] will come in a short time," the President said.

As for the F-35 fighter jets, he pointed to the G20 summit in Japan at the end of the month where he will meet with US President Donald Trump.

"Turkey is not just a customer of the F-35s, it is also a production partner of them. We will be together with Mr. President Trump in Japan at the end of the month. We will separately have a meeting with him there. Inshallah, we will talk about these issues," he said.

US acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan sent a letter to his counterpart in Ankara last week, warning Turkey that it will not be able to receive the fighter jets if it purchases the S-400 missiles from Russia.

(AS/VK)