Principled attitude paved way to victory: Turkish PM

ANKARA

The “principled and moral attitude” of Turkey’s Justice and Development (AK) Party led to it winning the Nov. 1 general election, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Tuesday.

“The reason behind the triumph story on Nov. 1 is the principled and moral attitude that never resorted to illegal means and resolutely carried out its decision to fight against terrorism,” Davutoglu said in a live interview with TRT state TV.

The AK Party regained its majority in the 550-seat Turkish parliament by sweeping 49.5 percent of the votes to take 317 seats.

The party gained almost 9 percent on the inconclusive June 7 election that led to almost five months of political uncertainty that witnessed a wave of terror attacks, including the July 20 Suruc bombing that killed 32 and the Ankara attack on Oct. 10 in which 102 died.

The inter-election period also saw Turkish security forces carry out nationwide counter-terrorism operations against the PKK amid a spike in attacks on security personnel.

“The Turkish people believed in our competency, our vision to rebuild the country and embraced our politics between June 7 and Nov. 1,” Davutoglu said.

The prime minister also addressed the difficulties faced by the AK Party, of which he is chairman, following the June election.

“We won the Nov. 1 elections on the night of June 7,” he said. “We told our people that we got their message and would never leave this country without a government.”

He added: “On June 7, the Turkish people told us to reevaluate ourselves and we established a broad consultation platform and held a party congress where we managed to preserve the unity and solidarity of the party.”

Davutoglu said the Suruc attack was another crucial event that led to the decision to pursue the fight against terror “with resolve”.

The Ankara bombing less than a month before the final election was an attack on democracy, he added. “It would have been so hard for Turkey to go to the polls in a polarized atmosphere unless we had dealt with the attack and embraced all of the community.”

The time between the elections would be marked as the “success of a politics that is integrated with the social psychology,” Davutoglu told the interviewer.

Politicial, economic, judicial and constitutional reform would form major policies for the administration, Davutoglu said.

“We will complete the first phase of political and economic reforms within the next six months, mainly judicial reforms,” he said.

These would bring more freedoms and would be scheduled within a three-month, six-month and year timeframe. Citizens will form part of the reform process.

“We will listen to all and establish their needs,” Davutoglu said. “We will take into account the most extreme views and try to make the best decision but will not allow the rise of social tension, provocation or polarizing speech to prevail under any circumstances.”

He revealed he would consider create “mini-Cabinets” relating to finance, security and foreign policy and reform.

“We are determined to follow the road map to 2019 with more specific practices by focusing on all,” he said.