https://ahvalnews.com/-Six Turkish opposition leaders convened on Saturday for a summit on strategies to return Turkey to a parliamentary system from the presidential system led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, T24 news site reported.
The leaders issued a joint statement following a working dinner, which blamed Turkey’s executive presidential system for the country’s ailing economy and stated a joint goal of returning its governance to a “strengthened parliamentary system.”
In 2018, Turkey ushered in a presidential system when President Erdoğan was re-elected president. The system, which grants the Turkish leader vastly enhanced executive powers, came into effect following a nationwide referendum marred by opposition allegations of vote-rigging. Erdoğan’s political opponents accuse him of bypassing parliament through presidential decrees, undercutting the judiciary’s independence and of seeking to suppress all opposition to his rule.
The working-dinner was attended by centre-left main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and centre-right Good Party (İYİP) leader Meral Akşener, as well as their smaller partners in the Nation Alliance, Democrat Party (DP) leader Gültekin Uysal and Felicity Party (SP) leader Temel Karamollaoğlu lasted over five hours, according to T24, and was followed by press conference.
Turkey’s third largest party in parliament, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) did not take part in the summit, with HDP officials condemning their counterparts for being excluded, Diken news site reported. Ankara accuses the HDP of terror links, a charge the party denies.
“Turkey is going through one of its deepest political and economic crises,’’ the joint statement said. “The most important reason for this crisis without a doubt is the arbitrary and lawless governance being implemented under the name of the ‘presidential system’.’’
The meeting arrives as Turkey has begun a countdown to its next presidential and parliamentary elections slated for the summer of 2023, against the backdrop of an economic crisis.
Ankara is grappling to steer the country’s worst economic crisis in the nearly 20-year rule of President Erdoğan. It has been marked by soaring inflation and a plunging currency, which lost 44 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar last year in a record-breaking low.
The full text of the opposition parties’ agreement is set to be published on February 28, according to T24.