#ResistDavutoğlu, Kılıçdaroğlu says

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s decision to chair the cabinet meeting that will take place on Jan. 19 is a straightforward intervention against the Turkish state’s tradition, the leader of the main opposition has said, calling Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu to resist for stopping such interventions into his authority.

“President announced that he will chair the cabinet meeting in January. We’ll observe one concrete example of a direct intervention against the state’s traditions.  We are aware of other interventions towards Mr. Davutoğlu’s area of responsibility. I call ‘resistdavutoğlu’. He has to resist,” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) told the daily Hürriyet in his first interview in 2015.

Erdoğan announced the date of the cabinet meeting that he will chair last week after a quarrel between his top aide, Binali Yıldırım and Prime Minister Davutoğlu. Yıldırım, in an interview two weeks ago, hinted Erdoğan might convene the cabinet on Jan. 5 but Davutoğlu denied Erdoğan’s top aide and underlined that these issues could only be discussed between the prime minister and president.

Although Turkish constitution authorizes the president to convene the cabinet, former head of nations did rarely use this power, especially at extraordinary times. President Erdoğan put an end to the controversy by announcing that he will use his right to chair the cabinet on Jan 19.

Kılıçdaroğlu recalled that Turkey will go to the polls in June to renew the Parliament and underlined that these elections will be crucially important. “During 12 years of AKP (Justice and Development Party) rule, none of ours moral values have been protected. All of our value judgments have...