* Photograph: Volkan Furuncu - Ankara/AA
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President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has responded to the statement of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chair Devlet Bahçeli, who stated earlier today (October 23) that "there will not be any alliances in the local elections in March 2019".
CLICK - Bahçeli: We Do Not Have Any Intention Left to Form Alliance
Speaking at the weekly group meeting of the AKP today, Erdoğan stated that they should not let that a shadow is cast on the Alliance for the Public, which the two parties previously formed ahead of the Presidential and Parliamentary elections on June 24, 2018.
Erdoğan also added, "We have seen that the MHP has made a different choice. If they are saying, 'We will go our own way', then, we would also say, 'Everyone should go their own way'."
"We think differently from MHP in some issues"
In his speech, President Erdoğan also expressed his own point of view regarding the issues of amnesty bill and national oath, over which the MHP and AKP have recently had disagreements.
Emphasizing that "the AKP and MHP are two separate parties", Erdoğan said, "We follow our own paths in issues, about which we think differently."
Regarding the bill of amnesty submitted to the Speaker's Office by the MHP in September 2018, Erdoğan stated, "We have tried to explain it with different examples that we do not lean towards the bill of amnesty" and added,
"There is a basic principle here. A state can grant amnesty to the ones who have committed crimes against itself; however, the state does not have the authority to grant amnesty to the crimes committed against people."
"I thought we have left these debates behind"
Regarding the debate on national oath, Erdoğan said, "The national oath was a subject, which I thought we had left in the past. We solved it in 2013. Council of State exceeded its authority and cancelled the related regulation.
"This ruling, which has dragged Turkey into a debate that it does not deserve, is an indication that the old diseases have still been living on."
The 8th Chamber of the Council of State previously ruled that an amendment that was formerly introduced to the Regulation on Primary Education Institutions, which stipulated that the national oath is not to be read out by the students in primary schools, shall be cancelled. (EKN/SD)
