İYİ Party slams Erdoğan after he calls on party to part ways with opposition bloc

Duvar English

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Nov. 17 called Right-wing opposition Good (İYİ) Party to reconsider their position in the opposition alliance.

“Let's put the CHP aside, I don't need to say all of the six (opposition) parties, but it is of course thought-provoking that the İYİ Party falls in line with them. Why do they fall on the same table or in the same position as them? Especially at a time like this. We wish that they too will reconsider their position and take a national stance,” Erdoğan told reporters on the plane while coming back from the G20 summit in Indonesia.

In response, Akşener said on Nov. 28 that “Mr. Erdogan, as I understand it, is deeply concerned about the election. Therefore, when he got up every morning, he tried to take steps to solve this concern. Last week, the AKP had a meeting with the HDP. We are used to Erdoğan’s ups and downs.”

“They are the ones who met with those who cannot call as terrorists but we are the ones who are declared as national. We are not a party that needs the recognition given by Mr. Erdoğan and his friends on the basis of nationality. We have never been together with a side where the future of our nation is wasted and exposed,” she further said during a meeting with the Federation of Entrepreneurial Businesswomen (GİFED).

There are currently three political alliances in Turkey: The ruling alliance consisting Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP); the main opposition alliance consisting the Republican People’s Party (CHP), İYİ (Good) Party Felicity (Saadet) Party, Democrat Party (DP), DEVA (Democracy and Progress) Party, and Future (Gelecek) Party; and the newly founded leftist opposition alliance consisting Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Workers’ Party (TİP), Labor Party (EMEP), Social Freedom Party (TÖP), Labor Movement Party (EHP), Socialist Assemblies Federation (SMF) will officially announce its establishment as a political alliance on Sept. 24 in a meeting in Istanbul.

Before the main opposition alliance reached six parties, CHP, İYİ Party, Felicity Party and Democrat Party founded the political and electoral alliance, the Nation Alliance, back in 2018. The other two parties, Future Party and DEVA, both founded by former high-level AKP officials, are now among the opposition ranks.

Now, the leaders of the six parties meet regularly and discuss how they will approach the elections that was scheduled to be held in 2023 and transform the political system of the country should they come to power.