Opposition leaders lambast government over Covid-19 management, foreign policy

Photo: AA

Click to read the article in Turkish (1) (2)

The heads of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and its ally İYİ (Good) Party criticized the government for its management of the Covid-19 outbreak.

As the spread of the outbreak appears to have slowed down in the country after the total caseload recently surpassed the 2-million mark, CHP Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, accused authorities of failing to manage the pandemic.

Speaking to his party's lawmakers in parliament, Kılıçdaroğlu said the government was "desperate" and "lacked strategy" in countering the virus, criticizing the government's public health policies, as well as its measures to mitigate the economic effects of the disease.

"One sentence uttered by a tradesman has become historic: 'I've been paying taxes to this state for 40 years, but it couldn't take care of me for 40 days."

"A government that couldn't manage to distribute five masks already can't rule this country," he added, referring to an earlier government initiative to distribute face masks to households.

To face down a surge in cases over the past weeks, Turkey introduced new Covid-19 restrictions in mid-November that were heightened earlier this month into full curfews over the weekend and partial stay-home orders on weeknights.

Some sectors, including production, supply, health, and agriculture, were exempt from the curfews.

Bakeries, supermarkets, grocery stores, and butchers also operated during the measures, though under limited working hours.

Akşener: US sanctions are a result of the lack of vision

İYİ Party Chair Meral Akşener called on the government to be "serious" in its foreign policy engagements.

"Threats in diplomacy cannot be eliminated by shouting slogans. Running a state is a serious business," she told her party's lawmakers.

Akşener accused the government of having a "lack of vision" in conducting the country's foreign policy.

"The sanctions by the US over the S-400s are the result of this lack of vision. The fact that our observation points in Idlib [Syria], which is a national issue for us, have been quietly abandoned by the government [...] is the result of this incompetence," Akşener said, referring to recent US sanctions on Turkey last week over its previous acquisition of the Russian S-400 missile defense system.

"The inability to say a single word to China, which persecutes our brothers [Uighurs] of East Turkistan, is the result of this inability," she added.

Beijing's policy in Xinjiang has drawn widespread criticism from rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which accuse it of ostracizing the 12 million Uighurs in China, most of whom are Muslims.

"Turkey, unfortunately, has become a country that [others] want to punish for exercising its right of sovereignty," she added, about ongoing disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean over drilling rights.

Turkey has consistently opposed Greece's efforts to declare an exclusive economic zone based on small islands near Turkish shores, violating the interests of Turkey, the country with the longest coastline in the Eastern Mediterranean. (AS/DŞ/VK)