Why did you turn a blind eye to Gülen until failed coup attempt, Kılıçdaroğlu asks AKP

ANKARA

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“Why did you turn a blind eye? Why didn’t you do what was necessary until today?” CHP head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu asked during the parliamentary group meeting of his party on Aug. 2, adding that everyone should draw lessons from the July 15 failed takeover.



“Ensuring hot politics to directly interfere into the developments in the military or paving the way for it would drag Turkey into a disaster and that is the point we’ve come to today,” he also said.



Saying that FETÖ members aimed to capture the army and wanted to get its members into Turkish war academies via stealing entrance examination questions, Kılıçdaroğlu added that the infiltration of politics into several institutions results in “this way.”



“Everyone should know that politics can’t enter mosques, army barracks and courthouses. Politics can’t enter mosques, for there are different beliefs. It shouldn’t be in anybody’s chain of command. Religion is a different area. If you are in the army, you should cut your relationship to politics. If you enter politics, then you should cease your relationship with the army,” he said.



The CHP head also stressed that the failed takeover showed that politics shouldn’t be done for personal interests, but for the people.



“Politics is dedicated to society. That is also what politics should find out. You can’t deliver the state to a movement, a class or a religious group. When you do it, you would blunt and destroy the state,” he also said.

Saying that history would repeat itself if society and politics didn’t analyze the past well, Kılıçdaroğlu noted that Turkey hasn’t taken lessons from the past.



“How can Turkey come to the edge of a coup? It means that there is a political institution that didn’t take lessons from the past. If we took lessons from the past, then history wouldn’t have repeated itself,” he added.



Kılıçdaroğlu said the commander in chief of the country was the Turkish parliament, in an apparent criticism toward President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s repeated remarks over the seat.



“Everyone should accept that the commander in chief of the country is the Turkish parliament. It has always been that way since the formation of the republic. That’s why we call it the veteran parliament,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.



Since the failed coup attempt Erdoğan has frequently said he was the commander in chief of the country.

Mentioning Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, Kılıçdaroğlu said that he restricted his authorities when he was given the commander in chief duty for three-month intervals.



“The Turkish parliament gave Mustafa Kemal Atatürk the authority. It was given in three-month intervals. No one should travel around saying that they are the commander in chief when Mustafa Kemal limited his authority. The authority is with the parliament. The article in the constitution is clear. The commander in chief only has the authority to represent under the name of the parliament. That authority is the chastity of the parliament and cannot be transferred,” he added.



The leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has criticized the ruling Justice and Development (AKP) government for “allowing the infiltration” of Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) members, whom the AKP says orchestrated the July 15 failed coup attempt, into the country’s institutions.