Good Party (IP) Istanbul Deputy Yavuz Ağıralioğlu, a prominent nationalist politician submitted his resignation on Tuesday, over the main opposition bloc's tacit cooperation with a pro-terrorist political party.
IP spokesman Kürşat Zorlu noted that Ağıralioğlu told his fellow party members that he would visit the IP leader to bid her farewell and scheduled an appointment with her for Wednesday, but Akşener reportedly canceled the meeting upon hearing about his resignation. His resignation will be effective from March 29, according to reports.
"Resignation is a one-sided decision," Zorlu said, adding that a meeting between IP Chairperson Meral Akşener and Ağıralioğlu would not take place.
In a speech at the Turkish Parliament last week, Ağıralioğlu used harsh rhetoric against IP ally Republican People’s Party (CHP), whose leader and presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu sought to garner support from the pro-PKK Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
“Not everything can be justified to win an election,” Ağıralioğlu said in reference to the HDP talks.
The HDP announced that they would not field a candidate for the May 14 elections, a decision that cemented their support for the Nation’s Alliance led by Kılıçdaroğlu and IP.
“We will not be under the shadow of terrorism,” Ağıralioğlu said. “We will be glad if we can have the vote of citizens who previously voted for the HDP; but all we see are leaders of the HDP who refer to the state as 'murderer,'" he said. “They made this honorable seat (of the Presidency) a bargaining chip in the hands of separatists,” Ağıralioğlu said, using a term for the PKK.
He said IP was “humiliated” and the CHP violated an agreement that is supposed to be a post-election roadmap by the six-party opposition bloc.
He had also said that he was showered with positive feedback from his fellow party members.
“My statements actually reflected the sentiments of the Good Party,” he told reporters.
IP Chairperson Meral Akşener had previously left the opposition bloc only to rejoin later.
