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🇹🇷 Turkey /Elections & Politics

Mustafa Balbay clarifies remarks about the CHP: “I was saying each alternative was worse than the others”

From Cumhuriyet · () Turkish

Translated from Turkish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Mustafa Balbay rejected claims that he called for the closure of Turkey’s Republican People’s Party after remarks on a TV100 program were presented without context.
  • He said he opposed operations against the CHP and municipalities, rejected pretrial detention, and argued that party closure or annulment would be worse alternatives.
  • Balbay described the criticism as a planned campaign against him and said his political record was rooted in democracy.

Mustafa Balbay, a Cumhuriyet columnist and former CHP lawmaker from İzmir, has rejected claims that he supports closing the Republican People’s Party.

Speaking on TV100, Balbay said he had meant that he did not want the CHP to be closed. His remarks were presented as “close the CHP” after being taken out of context, prompting him to explain what he had intended to say.

Absolutely, ‘the CHP should be closed, and it would be better if it were closed’... Impossible. That did not even pass through my assessment.

· Mustafa BalbayBalbay rejected the interpretation that he had called for the CHP to be shut down.

“Absolutely, ‘the CHP should be closed, and it would be better if it were closed’... Impossible,” Balbay said. He added that he had opposed operations targeting the CHP and municipalities from the beginning. He said people could be prosecuted, but he opposed keeping them in pretrial detention.

I am saying that each of them is worse than the other. Closing it would be much worse, annulment would be much worse.

· Mustafa BalbayHe explained that he was comparing negative scenarios, not advocating the party’s closure.

Balbay said he was comparing possible outcomes and arguing that each was worse than the previous one. “Closing it would be much worse, annulment would be much worse,” he said. He added that his writings and 68 books showed that he could not seek anything outside democracy, and that he did not even want the possibility of closing the CHP discussed around him.

He said he had emphasized the importance of people coming together, even in the worst circumstances, noting that people could now meet only after three months. Balbay said 3,000 of his 15,000 columns had focused on unity on the left. He rejected what he called a planned campaign of public vilification and said his political line had not changed since the period associated with Uğur Mumcu and Ahmet Taner Kışlalı. He also said he had pursued no office, personal interest or political goal.

I have opposed the operations against the Republican People's Party and municipalities from the beginning. You can prosecute everyone, but I said no to trial in detention.

· Mustafa BalbayBalbay described his position on legal actions involving the CHP and municipalities.
About this summary

Originally published by Cumhuriyet in Turkish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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