Erdogan: It Seems That Our People Have Approved Our 17-month Work

ANKARA - ''It seems that our people have approved our 17-month work,'' Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who also acts as leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) said on Monday on the state-run TRT-1 TV channel.
Prime Minister Erdogan said, ''I consider the local elections an assessment of rate of votes of 34.4 percent in the general elections of November 3, 2002, by our people during our 17-month service. Votes of people over this percentage will mean our people's pleasure with our 17-month work. Any contrary result will mean complaint of our people. It seems that our people have approved our 17-month work. According to unofficial results of the local elections, our people have approved continuation of our will and the current stability with rate of vote exceeding 34.4 percent (of votes that AK Party gained in general elections).''
Noting that they had been exerting efforts to base democracy on a stronger ground, and had not sought for numerical superiority while conducting such efforts, Prime Minister Erdogan said, ''democracy means protection of rights of individuals. We have been rebuilding the center. When we got 34.4 percent of votes in the general elections, we were told that 65 percent of people were against us. Now, the rate of vote of the AK party has reached about 50 percent. Why do they feel uneasy about our success? This is the response of our people.''
''The opposing political parties have failed to enrich the concept of opposition. The opposition is not the art of claiming the opposite ideas against the ruling party. The opposition should be able to advocate the same idea with the political power whenever it is necessary,'' he said.
Upon a question about western province of Izmir, Prime Minister Erdogan said, ''our hope to win local elections in Izmir has still been continuing. We have a talented candidate in Izmir. The AK party will get the mayorship in Izmir sooner or later.''
When asked, ''you have given the signals that the government could be reshuffled in line with results of the local elections. What will you say?'' Prime Minister Erdogan said, ''I did not say such a thing. But, there were such comments.''
(UK-AÖ) 29.03.2004