President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday criticized the opposition alliance that challenged him in the May elections and called them to disclose the "secret bargains" they pursued to unseat him and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). Erdoğan was addressing an Ankara meeting of heads of AK Party’s provincial branches.
"We are honored to serve for another five years for our nation but the May 28 victory shook Turkish politics. You see that the opposition is entangled in scandals. We see that they hid countless betrayals and dirty bargains under the table," he said, referring to the "table for six" alliance of the opposition parties led by the Republican People’s Party (CHP). The CHP’s leader, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, had brought together parties unlikely to make an alliance due to their different ideologies in a bid to defeat Erdoğan in the May elections. Yet, Kılıçdaroğlu, nominated as presidential candidate against the veteran leader, succumbed to defeat.
During the election campaign, Erdoğan accused Kılıçdaroğlu of receiving support from "terrorists" due to his informal alliance with the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which is closely linked to the PKK and faces a closure lawsuit for that reason.
"We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg. We don’t know what bargain they drove. We don’t know what they pledged to affiliates of the separatist group," he said, in reference to the PKK. "After all, they offered critical roles in their would-be government to a party that was not even in their (formal) alliance," Erdoğan added. Following the elections, it was revealed that Kılıçdaroğlu proposed the Interior Ministry post and post of intelligence chief to Victory Party (ZP), a far-right party led by Ümit Özdağ, if they support him. ZP had announced its support to Kılıçdaroğlu while its own candidate Sinan Oğan decided to withdraw and threw his support behind Erdoğan. "We cannot guess that this party, which helped 37 lawmakers (from parties with a slim chance of winning the legislative polls on their own) to gain seats in Parliament, offered to others," he said. Kılıçdaroğlu had made a deal with small parties with almost a below 1% vote rate to nominate their candidates under the CHP banner in exchange of support of the elections.
The president also urged the opposition alliance to reveal what they’ve done in Pennsylvania. "What have you talked with whom for eight hours at a hamburger joint?" Erdoğan asked. Kılıçdaroğlu visited the United States before the elections and deviated from his usual schedule during the visit, allegedly visiting the said hamburger joint in Pennsylvania where Fetullah Gülen, leader of Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), resides. His critics claimed that Kılıçdaroğlu spoke with FETÖ members, seeking the support of secret members of the terrorist group in Türkiye for the elections. "I wonder what they promised to them so they started sharing photos of plane tickets on social media," Erdoğan said.
Several FETÖ members living in the U.S. indeed shared photos of tickets, signaling they would return to Türkiye if Kılıçdaroğlu wins. Most fugitive members of FETÖ live in the U.S. Some fled Türkiye after a coup attempt in 2016 by FETÖ infiltrators in the army that was quashed by a public resistance led by Erdoğan. "Kılıçdaroğlu must answer these questions," Erdoğan added.