Turkish President Erdogan rejoins ruling AK Party

By Mumin Altas and Sinan Uslu

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejoined the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party upon signing his membership declaration during a special ceremony in the capital Ankara on Tuesday.

Speaking at the ceremony at AK Party headquarters, Erdogan said: "Today, I return to the party that I founded, my home, my passion, my love, which I had to leave according to our Constitution on Aug. 27, 2014, when I was elected president."

Under the previous Constitution’s rules prior to the referendum, a Turkish president could not hold membership of a political party. The April 16 referendum on constitutional reforms overturned that rule.

In his speech at the ceremony, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Erdogan will be nominated chairman of AK Party during the congress that will be held on May 21.

Erdogan led the AK Party for 13 years starting in 2001 but had to step aside when he became president in August 2014, due to a legal requirement for presidents to be politically neutral.

While handing over leadership to then-Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu at an AK Party extraordinary congress in 2014, Erdogan bid farewell to party members but added he was leaving with “the hope of rejoining”.

Erdogan becomes the fourth president to retain his party ties. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Republic of Turkey, maintained his membership in the Republican People’s Party (CHP), as did his successor, Ismet Inonu.

Turkey’s third president, Celal Bayar, was also a member of the Democrat Party.

Turkish presidents maintained party ties until the country’s 1960 coup. The post-coup Constitution prepared in 1961 forced Turkish heads of state to cut their links to political parties. The 1982 Constitution maintained that tradition.

'Europe supports PKK'

Turning to Turkey’s European Union accession process, Erdogan said Turkey would stop pursuing EU membership if the bloc failed to open new accession chapters.

"You [EU] have no choice but to open the chapters not opened so far, if you don't then it is goodbye," he said.

He also slammed the EU for its alleged support to terror groups, including the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) and the PKK.

“Europe is giving all kinds of support to these [terrorist] members and the PKK. Why?” he asked.

“They give such support to derail Turkey’s rise,” he said, adding that Turkey “will take the matters into its own hands” while fighting against the PKK/PYD terror group in northern Syria.

FETO is accused by Turkey of orchestrating last July’s defeated coup, which left 249 martyrs and thousands others injured, as well as being behind a longstanding effort to infiltrate and undermine Turkish institutions.

More than 1,200 people, including security personnel and civilians, have lost their lives since the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July 2015.

'First-class citizens'

Erdogan said all Turkish citizens who have no ties to terrorism or treason will be treated equally.

“There are no second-class citizens in this country. All 80 million [Turkish citizens] are first-class citizens,” he said.

The president said Western countries who accused Turkey of “discrimination” were themselves discriminating against Turkish people living in their countries.

“They had hung a giant poster in front of the parliament building in Switzerland that showed a gun pointed to my head. Now, they have gone one step ahead. They threw paint at all the windows of our consulate general in Zurich and wrote ‘Death to Erdogan’ on the bus stations of that neighborhood,” he said.

"Where is the Swiss police? Do we allow such a thing to happen to the embassy or consulate of Switzerland in Turkey?

“Never have we done so. If there is even a slight movement, the first thing our security forces do is take measures there.

“We always consider [the foreign consulates and embassy buildings in Turkey] as entrusted to us. It is unfortunate that we don’t get to be treated in the same way," he added.

*Anadolu Agency’s Nilay Kar Onum in Istanbul contributed to this story.