17 February 2016•Update: 17 February 2016
ANKARA
A veteran opposition MP has said taking care of Turkey trumps “settling accounts with the ruling power”.
Former Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal said Wednesday that the ability to draw a distinction between the two "is a requirement of a statesman".
Baykal’s statement comes two days after he criticized the CHP leadership over its response to the terror crisis inside Turkey and in neighboring Syria.
During an interview aired on a private television network Baykal said Monday that Turkey’s recent shelling of the terrorist PKK group and its Syrian affiliate’s positions in northern Syria were an attempt to prevent a new wave of refugees.
He had said that it was Turkey’s legitimate right to demand interference to prevent another refugee influx, considering the country was already hosting over 2.5 million Syrian people.
In his statement issued Wednesday, Baykal said: "Nowadays Turkey is facing a historic crisis with unusual internal and external dimensions."
He also accused the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party for problems developing into a crisis.
"It is the of duty of each of us to support the fight against terror …” he said, adding that the opposition does not have to right to say that the Syrian crisis is “not our business”.
Replying to criticism of his last interview, Baykal said it would not have been necessary to make such comments in public if current CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu "would have done what was needed".
Baykal said that many experienced party members had expressed a need to "overcome the weakness in (party) management".
The CHP got about 25 percent of the vote in Turkey’s last general elections on Nov. 1, 2015, about half that of AK Party votes (more than 49 per cent).
Despite the criticism from the party, CHP leader Kilicdaroglu was re-elected in January for another term in office.
