Erdoğan says he did nothing against law as president

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivers a speech at a business event. (Photo: Cihan via tccb.gov.tr)

July 10, 2015, Friday/ 23:38:43/ TODAYSZAMAN.COM / ISTANBUL

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has denied claims that he is exceeding his powers as the president, saying he did nothing against the law since he assumed post last year.

“Whatever I did since I assumed post is in compliance with the Constitution and my commitment to my nation. The claims brought forward about me and the office of the president are just lies, slanders and wrong. As the president, I did not and will not have a single step, decision and attempt that went beyond the boundaries of the law,” Erdoğan said on Friday during an address at İstanbul University's Faculty of Theology.

Critics accuse Erdoğan, who was elected as the president in a public vote on Aug. 10 of last year, of violating the Constitution by openly favoring the ruling party, interfering in the judiciary and in the actions of the executive body.
Ahead of the June 7 parliamentary elections, Erdoğan was lambasted of favoring the ruling party and criticizing the opposition in his speeches.
In many widely televised rallies, Erdoğan told people to give the ruling party, without directly citing its name, 400 deputies in Parliament in the election so that a shift to a presidential system could be instituted.

Most recently, he has been accused of deliberately taking his time to give a deputy the mandate to form a government after the election results on June 7 saw the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Erdoğan co-founded losing its parliamentary majority and ended a 13-year single party rule as well curbing Erdoğan's ambitions of implementing a presidential system in Turkey.
His frequent references to a snap election option is because that would be the only way the AK Party could win back a majority to form a single-rule government and help him realize his vision for the presidential system.

According to the Constitution, Erdoğan has right to call a snap election after giving the mandate to political party leaders to form a government if the efforts in this direction fail within 45 days.

Keywords: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan