Gelecek Party's Temurci, who entered Parliament on the CHP list, explains why he rejected the IMM candidacy! 'With the AKP base...'

Gelecek Party's Selim Temurci, who was elected as an Istanbul Deputy from the CHP lists in the May elections, answered questions from Sözcü's İsmail Saymaz.

Criticizing his own party, Temurci expressed that he had been against Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's presidential candidacy, Ahmet Davutoğlu's vice-presidential candidacy, and the group formed with the Saadet Party from the very beginning.

WHY DID HE REJECT THE IMM CANDIDACY OFFER?

Temurci, who turned down the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality mayoral candidacy offer from his party, explained his reasoning as follows;

“I had reservations about the cooperation with Saadet. I said, ‘This will ruin us, let’s form a rotating group.’ That was the right thing to do. The Professor (Davutoğlu) made a protocol, and we gathered under the name of Saadet. Our party's name disappeared. Gelecek was used to make Saadet visible. If there were a union of Saadet, Gelecek, and DEVA in Istanbul, of course, it would happen. But people forgot our party's name. It had recognition, now it doesn't even have that. Secondly, we worked with the CHP and the price was heavy. It was also heavy for the CHP.

Put yourself in my shoes. You received one percent of the vote in Istanbul. Who do you get it from? I would get it from people closer to the AK Party. In such a situation, you would face the accusation of ‘You went to the CHP and helped them’ from your own base for the second time. Being a candidate would harm us and the party in metropolitan cities. It is not just me, but many of our friends who do not want to come face-to-face with the AK Party base.”

Temurci expressed his view, saying, “I know that Ekrem Bey (İmamoğlu) has big goals. I know that those goals hindered service to Istanbul. I said that because Murat Bey (Kurum) has a style like Kadir Topbaş, he is the candidate.”

WILL HE JOIN THE AKP?

Responding to the question of whether he has a desire to join the AKP, Temurci replied, “I have not made a statement about joining the AK Party. For tomorrow, I have an effort to position not just myself, but the party somewhere and pull it into a gray area. If we can succeed, that thing you mentioned will not happen.”