Erdoğan’s palace won’t bring prestige to Turkey: CHP

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), has harshly criticized the erecting of the “overpriced” presidential palace for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, rejecting the president’s argument that such a massive building would bring "prestige" to Turkey.

Kılıçdaroğlu also repeated his claim that the palace is "corrupt and illegal," calling on Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu to launch a probe to reveal the corruption.

“[Erdoğan] claimed it would bring prestige to Turkey. No, such grandiose palaces do not bring prestige to any society. You can only build prestige with science, knowledge, moral values and justice. If you have these things, you have prestige, otherwise you do not,” he said in his address to Parliament during budget talks on Dec. 10.

Kılıçdaroğlu’s hour-long address included fierce criticisms of the government’s economic policies, with specific questions directed toward Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. The first issue he highlighted was the government’s efforts to hide the financial accounts of a number of ministers from the Court of Accounts.

“The Court of Accounts cannot perform its duty because some ministries do not submit their accounts. I ask the prime minister: On what grounds are they permitted to not submit their accounts? I also ask the parliamentary speaker: Why do you not intervene?” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

The government is continuing to discuss necessary "structural reforms" despite being in power for the last 12 years, he added.

“Who has been ruling this country for 12 years? What is the economic policy? What does your budget suggest? You have been repeating the same story that Turkey is growing. The...