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PM Erdoğan: If Bahçeli cannot prove his claims he is dishonest
“Now I do not understand them [the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP)]. I am saying clearly that if they were able to prove that this plan was prepared by the US with those alleged intentions I would say OK to them, but if they cannot, they are dishonest,” Erdoğan said after the Friday prayer in İstanbul.
Recalling the amnesty which abolished the death penalty in Turkey, Erdoğan said: “When Öcalan was apprehended the coalition government at that time, which was composed of the Democratic Left Party (DSP ), the Nationalist Movement Party( MHP ) and the Motherland Party (ANAVATAN), put an end to the death penalty in Turkey for the constitutional changes necessary for the EU accession process.”
He underlined that the goal of the recently announced democratic initiative is removing terrorism from Turkey.
“The government must keep fighting against all the country's problems. I find it important to recognize the problems as a problem of terrorism. This [democratic initiative] is the attempt to eliminate terrorism but at the same time an effort to create solidarity among the different ethnic backgrounds in the country.”
When asked about his response to Sezen Aksu, a renowned Turkish singer who expressed her and her family's support for the government's democratic initiative in a phone call to the prime minister, he said he called Aksu back and thanked her for her sensitiveness towards the issue and noted that he finds it a part of normality that there are critics of the initiative. “Sezen Aksu told me she will assist the initiative; her call pleased us. I believe that there are many other artists who share Aksu's stance whereas there are some people opposing the initiative and who have some prejudices but that is the richness of democracy and I respect them,” he added.
Meanwhile, Erdoğan touched upon the controversy on the route of the third bridge saying that the route for the third Bosporus bridge has not been completely determined and criticized Gürsel Tekin, saying the head of the CHP's İstanbul branch accused the AK Party without having any precise information on the route.
“The final decision will be made after we have concluded our studies. There are some different routes but we will decide following a helicopter study flying over the probable routes with İstanbul Mayor Kadir Topbaş and Minister of Transportation Binali Yıldırım. The route announced is not the ultimate one,” said the prime minister.
Gürsel Tekin announced in a press conference on Wednesday that his party had learned the precise route of the long-awaited third bridge, asserting this in a press conference on Wednesday and expressing his criticism that Kadir Topbaş, the mayor of İstanbul, had no idea about the project.
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