President Ersin Tatar's warns opposition: “Be constructive, not destructive
President Ersin Tatar has issued a written statement calling upon opposition political parties to show a spirit of unity, solidarity and cooperation, instead of adopting a non-constructive position and using destructive, rather than constructive comments, which could drag the country into chaos.
President Tatar’s statement is as follows:
“Our people are aware of the developments relating to the formation of the new government after Prime Minister Faiz Sucuoğlu submitted the resignation of his government. Based on the authority given to me by the Constitution, I met separately with the delegations of the political parties represented in the Parliamentary Assembly with regards to the formation of a new government. After I held a meeting with the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) delegation, the party Chairman, Tufan Erhürman, suggested that the mandate of forming the government should be given only to the CTP and that there should be an early general election if they are unable to form a new government within the 15-day period. It was not possible for me to accept this condition which was in fact unconstitutional.
People’s Party (HP) Chairman, Kudret Özersay, also announced that he would not take part in a new government, whilst the Democrat Party (DP) and Rebirth Party (YDP) announced that they would not take part in a government that would be formed under Dr Sucuoğlu's Prime Ministry. Under these circumstances, I handed the task of forming the government to National Unity Party (UBP) Girne MP Ünal Üstel, who could succeed in receiving a vote of confidence based on the authority given to me by the Constitution, in order to put an end to the government crisis. Prime Minister Sucuoğlu, the UBP Central Executive Board and the UBP Party Assembly approved the formation of the new government by Mr Üstel.
This decision was proven to be correct when the UBP-DP-YDP coalition government, established under the Prime Ministry of Mr Üstel, received a vote of confidence in the Assembly of the Republic.
Whilst the newly formed government started to work with great effort to find solutions to the problems of the country and the people, I am sadly observing that the CTP and other opposition political parties, which abnegated responsibility, are trying to drag the country into an environment of chaos and crisis. The CTP and other opposition political parties argue that the government, which was formed within the framework of the respective articles of the Constitution and which received the vote of confidence with 29 votes from the Assembly of the Republic, is "not legitimate" and trying to mislead the public with this empty and unrealistic claim. Furthermore, they are trying to create an atmosphere of turmoil and tension with the strategy that is based on “carrying the protest on the street into Parliament”. It is not possible to accept such provocative statements and actions.
I wish to emphasise that, even though there are problems in the country that are in need of being addressed, such discourses and actions of the CTP and other opposition parties are not beneficial to our country and our people. What we need in this period is to act in a spirit of unity and solidarity.
For this reason, I invite the opposition, in particular the CTP, to take a constructive approach as to how to address the issues, rather than making inflammatory and destructive comments which serves no purpose. We should remember that this country belongs to all of us. Our duty is to work for the benefit of our country and our people in cooperation and solidarity.”