‘No one’s personal opinion can be associated with President or AKP’

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA) - Archive

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President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addressed his party members at the AKP Isparta, Burdur, Gümüşhane, Kastamonu and Sinop 7th Ordinary Congresses via videoconference yesterday (November 22).

Addressing a series of issues in his speech, Erdoğan also responded to Presidential High Advisory Board member Bülent Arınç, who criticized the continued arrest of businessperson and rights defender Osman Kavala and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) former Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş.

CLICK - 'I protested when I read the indictments against Selahattin Demirtaş, Osman Kavala'

Without referring to Arınç by name, President Erdoğan said, "Even if we worked together in the past, no one's personal opinion can be associated with the President, our government or our party. We can never be together with Kavalas, nor can we forget Kobanê."

He addressed this issue briefly as follows:

'They are trying to fire up trouble'

"We see that there has recently been an attempt to light a fire of trouble by some personal statements that have nothing to do with us and by using our reform agenda as a pretext.

"Even if we worked together in the past, no one's personal opinions can still be associated with the President, our government or our party.

"What we say, where we stand and where we head for is obvious. There is not even a tiniest change in our direction. Those who are involved in terror, those who are walking hand in hand, arm in arm with terror can never be on our side, nor can we be in contact with them.

"Those who are now at the disposal of the judiciary are the ones who caused the death of our hundreds of, thousands of people, they are the ones who caused the death of our Yasin Börüs [killed during Kobanê incidents in Diyarbakır]. The perpetrators of the Kobanê massacre can never ever be defended by Tayyip Erdoğan or by his comrades.

'We cannot defend Gezi's organizers'

"We cannot be the defenders of those who organized Gezi protests. We have never been the defenders of the one who financed Gezi yesterday or today; we will never be from then on, either.

"No one can question our vision, no one can claim the contrary. We can never be together with Kavalas, nor can we forget Kobanê."

'Turkey is an inseparable part of Europe'

In his speech at the AKP Congresses, President and AKP Chair Erdoğan also reiterated that "Turkey was an inseparable part of Europe":

"We see ourselves as an inseparable part of Europe. We have always been the strongest member of Western Alliances, NATO in particular.

"We have always preferred the West in areas from defense to trade as long as they have not compelled us to other quests.

"However, this does not mean that we are going to bow down to overt attacks, injustices imposed under different disguises, and double standards against our country and our nation."

Erdoğan also indicated that they "had never given up upholding democracy, the supremacy of national will, defending rights and freedoms, and our determination for change no matter what" and said:

"Now, we are initiating a new leap forward that will further advance this process with new legal and economic reforms."

Calling on the European Union (EU) to keep the promises it made to Turkey from full membership to the refugee issue, and to establish closer and more productive cooperation, Erdoğan stated:

"We voice the same wish for our relations with our ally, the US. We believe we have a lot of things to do on a regional and global scale with a US which respects Turkey's concerns about its border security and defense needs." (EKN/SD)