Mustafa Yeneroğlu Resigns from Ruling AKP

* Photo: AA

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Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) İstanbul MP Mustafa Yeneroğlu held a press conference at the Parliament today (October 30) and announced that he has resigned from his party.

Yeneroğlu indicated that the request for his resignation came from President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the senior AKP officials informed him about his request.

Addressing reporters at the Parliament, Yeneroğlu said, "I shared it with the public whatever I held to be true, whatever my conscience dictated."

Reminding the reporters that he stood for the elections on June 7, 2015 upon the invitation of President Erdoğan, he stated the following in brief:

'I have endeavoured to protect the rights of those not thinking like me'

"I am a person who struggled against discrimination in issues related to Turkish and Muslim people abroad within the scope of human rights. Therefore, after I came to Turkey, I have endeavoured to protect the rights and the law of the ones who do not think or live like me.

"Especially if there was hostility towards Christians or anti-Semitism in my country, I waged my struggle at the Human Rights Commission, thinking that I had to raise the most powerful voice against it.

"In the current situation, especially for the last 2-3 years, I have shared my concerns with the public about the policies of my party, violations of human rights and damages inflicted on democratic institutions."

'Our President said that I had to resign'

Reminding the reporters that he was elected to the Central Executive Board of the AKP "as appreciated by the President", Yeneroğlu reiterated that "he shared his criticisms so that the violations of human rights tarnishing the image of Turkey could be eliminated."

"Since I cherished no hope that these concerns of mine would be addressed or alleviated, I did not attend our last two Central Executive Board meetings", he added and shared the following details about his resignation:

"In my speech with our secretary general, I told him that our party had to return to its founding principles. Our secretary general listened to my opinions. Afterwards. he informed me that our President expressed his conviction that I had to resign from the party."

"I know that there are very serious problems about the future of Turkey", Yeneroğlu emphasized and indicated that "all our friends say that the AK Party is responsible for changing this current situation."

Concluding his remarks, Mustafa Yeneroğlu announced that he has resigned from the AKP Membership of Parliament.

He is known for his dissenting voice

Yeneroğlu was known for its criticisms and dissenting voice in the AKP. He previously expressed his criticisms on a series of issues such as violations of human rights and freedom of expression as well as the rule of law.

For instance, when a group of tourists from the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government were attacked in Trabzon, he said on social media,

"The attempted lynch in Trabzon is really horrible. Just as we can have our photographs taken with our crimson flag all across the world freely, there cannot be anything wrong if the Kurds coming from Northern Iraq want to have their pictures taken with their own flags."

Or, when an attacker threw a molotov cocktail at a synagogue in İzmir, he said, "There is no difference between attacks targeting synagogues, churches and mosques; they all target social peace with their hate." (HA/SD)