İYİ Party leader urges Erdoğan to abandon 'adolescent attitude'

Duvar English

Right-wing Good (İYİ) Party leader Meral Akşener urged President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to stop responding to European leaders with an "adolescent-like attitude" and to "act like a statesman."

The chairwoman's comments are targeted at Erdoğan's latest feud with French President Emmanuel Macron, who Akşener said "insulted Islam and Prophet Mohammad to save his own administration."

Turkey accuses Macron of supporting hate crimes with his new plan against 'Islamist separatism'

Most recently, France had to warn citizens living or traveling in Muslim-majority countries to take extra security precautions as tensions rise in the Muslim world over France's permission to display cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

The dispute has its roots in a knife attack outside a French school on Oct. 16 when a Chechen radical beheaded Samuel Paty, a teacher who had shown pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a lesson about freedom of speech.

After the beheading, Macron declared war on "Islamist separatism", which he believes is taking over some Muslim communities in France.

Turkish President Erdoğan said on Oct. 24 that the French president needed a check on his mental health – comments that caused France to recall its ambassador from Ankara.

As European leaders rallied behind Macron following Erdoğan's statements, the Turkish leader proceeded to call for a boycott of French goods and Ankara launched a probe into French publication Charlie Hebdo for a caricature that depicted Erdoğan in underwear.

Erdoğan says he didn't see Charlie Hebdo cartoon about him, as Ankara launches probe into magazine

İYİ Party leader Akşener said that Erdoğan's insulting response to Macron failed to defend Turkey, but in fact boosted public support for the latter.

"Stop snacking on Turkish foreign policy as a side dish to your ego. Give those adolescent-like European leaders the response they deserve with statesmanship, not the same adolescent behavior," Akşener told the president.

The chairwoman said that "Turkish character" required making anyone who "disrespects the country regret their actions by doing what is necessary."

"This doesn't mean getting sucked into war of words. Brawls are for the weak. The strong don't brawl. The strong won't threaten France, the U.S. or Israel and go on with business as usual in the background," Akşener said.

"A strong country is only created through smart foreign policy, a solid economy, democracy and the rule of law and justice," Akşener added.

2021 budget proposal is admission of Turkey's impoverishment

The chairwoman also touched on the presidency's budget proposal for 2021, saying that it postponed by the government's 2023 fiscal goals to 2053 and failed to offer solutions to citizens' problems.

"This budget proposal is an official document of admission that Turkey is impoverished. It shows us that Turkey has entered a loop of budget deficits, loans and interest rates like it experienced in the 90s," the chairwoman said.

The budget depicts income per capita recede to levels it experienced 14 years ago and investment shrink below 2002 levels, the chairwoman noted.

Economic program unveiled by gov't is a declaration of Turkey's impoverishment, says DEVA chair

Akşener also slammed the president's comments to a worker who complained of not being able to bring home bread that he should "enjoy a nice cup of tea."

"Shame! The dollar rate is over eight liras and the Euro is almost 10 liras on the unit. Does that picture make you want to enjoy a nice cup of tea, Erdoğan?"

The chairwoman said that she didn't feel like enjoying a nice cup of tea considering one third of the country's youth is unemployed, two thirds have lost all hope for the future and the hunger threshold is above minimum wage.

"Do you feel like enjoying a nice cup of coffee when you look at your people dabbling in poverty? I don't. And neither does this long-suffering people."