PM Erdoğan: Nation will not elect a ‘flower pot’ president

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan greets members of parliament from his ruling AKP, as he arrives for the parliamentary group meeting in Ankara, July 8. AA Photo

Presidential hopeful Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has belittled the portrayal of his main competitor Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu as an impartial statesman, saying the Turkish people will not be electing “an ornamental president” when they go to the ballot boxes next month.

“It is written on [the wall of] Parliament that ‘Sovereignty belongs to the nation.’ Isn’t it still this way?” Erdoğan said on July 8, addressing a parliamentary group meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), one week after being officially announced as his party’s presidential candidate on July 1.

“The nation has established the AK Party and its fabric is woven by the nation. Just as the nation is able to designate its government, it will easily elect [the president]. The CHP [main opposition Republican People’s Party] does not recognize the nation. It does not believe that it [the nation] can make a good choice,” he added.

The Turkish president will be directly elected by voters for the first time in the history of the country next month, and İhsanoğlu is the joint candidate of the two largest opposition parties, the CHP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

“The CHP this time insists on something: It is trying to elect a ‘vase,’ a ‘flower pot,’ not a president,” Erdoğan said, using a phrase that is widely used in Turkish to describe a person who does not take the initiative.

“Can a president be impartial? Which president has ever been impartial? Were Mr. [Süleyman] Demiral and Mr. [Ahmet Necdet] Sezer not partial?” he asked, referring to outgoing President Abdullah Gül’s predecessor Sezer and Sezer’s...

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