Ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) spokesperson Ömer Çelik said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan prefers to utilize dialogue rather than polarization in politics after he held talks at the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) headquarters in the capital Ankara on Tuesday.
"He welcomes today's return visit and the current state of Turkish politics," Çelik told reporters following the meeting, adding that the president thinks the opportunity must not be wasted.
Çelik said Erdoğan and Özel discussed various issues, including constitutional reform, the economy, the threat of PKK terrorism and more.
The president told Özel that Türkiye needed to be liberated from the coup Constitution, something he said they owed to the future generations.
Regarding the economy, Erdoğan told Özel that the government is determined to protect the gains from the Medium-Term Program (OVP). He also said Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek could hold a meeting with them.
President Erdoğan made a return visit to Özel, stepping into the headquarters of his party’s main rival after 18 years in a bid for political normalization.
Erdoğan and Özel first met in the aftermath of the March 31 municipal elections, where the AK Party lost several strongholds to the CHP. Prior to that, they informally chatted during a reception for a national holiday Erdoğan hosted at the Presidential Complex.
Like in the first meeting, Erdoğan was accompanied by Mustafa Elitaş, a senior member of his party who serves as AK Party's acting group chair, while Özel was accompanied by CHP lawmaker Namık Tan.
The first meeting of Erdoğan and Özel was unprecedented as the president had never held such a formal meeting with Özel’s predecessor, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. The AK Party and the CHP have competed in a string of local and general elections since the early 2000s, but the opposition has been a chronic loser, except for winning a few key cities in the 2019 municipal elections. The latest local elections, however, marked a comeback for the CHP, which increased the number of local administrations it retained.