President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hit out at main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in a speech on Wednesday for days of riots erupted after the arrest of CHP’s Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu.
He said CHP’s reputation was tarnished in the last three weeks because of riots where it “incited the youth to take to the streets while (party officials) hid.” “They could not receive the support they expected from their Western masters,” Erdoğan told a meeting of his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in the capital Ankara. He was referring to party’s appeal to other countries to support their protest of mayor’s arrest on charges of corruption.
Erdoğan also hit out at CHP leader Özgür Özel for describing his government as “junta.” “CHP itself is manifestation of junta, they wrote the playbook of coup plotters,” he said, elaborating on opposition party’s fervent support for a 1960 coup.
DETAILS TO FOLLOW…