Turkey’s Iron Lady forms new party
ANKARA: A Turkish former interior minister once dubbed Turkey’s Iron Lady and seen as a potentially strong challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched a political party after months of speculation.
Meral Aksener delivered a defiant speech promising a “strong, happy” Turkey at the official launch of the Iyi (“Good” in Turkish) Party in the capital Ankara yesterday.
“We have hope. We have dreams. We want a rich Turkey. We have strength. We want a fair Turkey ... we want a free society. We want a happy Turkey,” she said during a spirited speech filled with nationalism and a cheering audience.
She was cheered by thousands of supporters and founding party members in a hall surrounded by the party’s blue and yellow sun logo and banners of modern Turkey founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Aksener, 61, was a former member of the country’s third largest opposition right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) until she failed to remove Devlet Bahceli as MHP leader in early 2016 and was later expelled from the party in September 2016.
Bahceli has led the MHP for over 20 years but opponents wanted a fresh face.
There has been frenzied talk of Aksener running against Erdogan in the presidential election in November 2019 when Turkey’s parliamentary system will formally become an executive presidency after the referendum on constitutional changes earlier this year.
Turks approved giving the president greater powers, including appointing ministers, in the most radical political shake-up in the country’s recent history. — AFP