Turkey’s autocratic ruler Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pledged to lift years-old state of emergency if re-elected on June 24.
Erdogan in an interview Wednesday on 24 TV said his first decision if re-elected on June 24 will be to lift the state of emergency in place since July 2016 following a failed coup that attempted to topple him.
“Lifting the state of emergency does not mean abolishing it completely not to come back. We’ll take whatever the toughest precaution again when we see terror.”
The Turkish leader narrowly escaped the coup that he blamed on his rival Fethullah Gulen in exile in the United States.
Ankara imposed the state of emergency in a move to clampdown on coup leaders among whom military officers, civil servants, lecturers. The security measure, which prohibits gatherings and demonstrations, has been extended every three months since then. Some 160,000 have been detained so far while similar numbers of workers suspected to have links with Gulen have been fired from their jobs, reports say.
Erdogan recently hailed the state of emergency arguing that businesses should welcome the state of emergency because it guards against terrorism and prevents workers from going on strike, Middle East Eye (MEE) reports.
The first democratically elected Turkish President is seeking another five-year term. Local Sabah Daily reports that a Bloomberg poll has placed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as the likely winner of the upcoming presidential elections.
He is predicted to win the elections at the first round with 50.8 percent of the votes. Erdogan’s party, Justice and Development Party (AK Party), and its ally the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) will likely get a majority in Parliament, according to a survey commissioned by Bloomberg.
Other challengers in the presidential elections are Muharrem İnce from the Republican People’s Party (CHP), and Selahattin Demirtaş from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
