Erdoğan sets date for local election candidates: 'We are comfortable, we have no problems'

President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan answered journalists' questions on the plane returning from his visit to Hungary.

Stating that the candidates will be determined in the near future, President Erdoğan said the following:

OUR TEAMS ARE IN CONTACT

"We are focusing on ourselves in this regard; we are not dwelling on what others have done or are doing. As you know, we currently have a journey as the People's Alliance. We are continuing this journey together as the Nationalist Movement Party and the AK Party. We have held our meetings, and we continue to do so. Last week, as you know, we held our meetings with the New Welfare Party, HÜDA PAR, and our other two partners. As of now, our teams are in contact with each other.

Our Deputy Chairman Efkan Ala and our Vice Chairmen Ali İhsan Yavuz and Yusuf Ziya Yılmaz are the colleagues tasked with these meetings. Our colleagues are holding talks with whoever is designated as their counterpart. In the meantime, we are inviting our provinces, starting with the metropolitan cities, and taking their opinions. We invited all our colleagues in Ankara, Adana, İzmir, and on Sunday in Istanbul. We held our meeting with these colleagues in Istanbul."

"WE WILL ANNOUNCE THE DETERMINED CANDIDATES AT THE END OF DECEMBER"

"Now, we will continue from where we left off starting tomorrow. By the end of the month, we will begin to announce the results of these polls we have conducted, step by step. Along with all of this, our colleagues are also meeting one by one to discuss who we will run with in the districts within the People's Alliance and who we will designate as council members. Our work is continuing without any problems so far. We have no fighting or noise; we are comfortable.

But you are already watching the situation in the other alliance; I don't need to explain it to you. You cannot get anywhere with fighting and noise. Hopefully, the end will be good."

"TURKEY IS READY FOR THE EU"

Responding to a question about Turkey being kept waiting for years despite the EU starting accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, Erdoğan said:

"Granting them candidate status does not mean they will come and become members of the European Union. A process will be started with them, and they will also be stalled. None of these countries is Turkey. The European Union needs to evaluate Turkey's position well from now on. It is wrong for Turkey, which is more ready to join the European Union than many member countries, to be kept waiting at the door for years due to political obstacles.

While Turkey's strategic and economic potential requires it to have already achieved full membership in the European Union, we have been stalled for years with various excuses. How important and effective a country Turkey is has been revealed once again in the processes we have experienced in recent years. The EU must now abandon this mistake."