The event, which was organized by HÜDA PAR provincial presidency, started with the recitation from the Holy Quran.

Stating that the situation of earthquake victims should be kept in mind while conducting political activities, Yapıcıoğlu said: “As you know, we will go to the polls on May 14. We will go to the polls on May 14 to make our election, which may affect the manager of the next 5 years, but a much longer period, a long future. There is a total of 40 days. During this period, we need to carry out our work in the field by planning very well by using our time very well, but we need to carry out our work without forgetting the pain of the double earthquake we experienced while doing this work, without forgetting the situation of our brothers who have not healed their wounds yet and whose pain is still fresh.”

"We will explain the reason for our choices to the citizens in a wise language"

Drawing attention to the harsh style in politics, Yapıcıoğlu stated that harsh, belligerent, and marginalizing language should not be used, and said: “Maybe we made our first statement to show this sensitivity on this issue, and then other parties said that they would not carry out an election campaign with songs, folk songs, and music. Yes, we are going to an election, but in some, I get the impression that we are going to war, not to an election. The style is very harsh, there is quarrelsome and marginalizing language and a tense atmosphere. We have consistently underlined some points since the day we set off. We said that politics does not have to be like this, we do not have to use such harsh language, such a harsh style. Provoking the nation against each other, making them hate each other, and bringing them against each other is doing evil to this nation. We have said it many times, we repeat it once again, and we will do our work. While doing our work, I hope we will explain to the citizens what we are, what we are trying to do, what our goals are, or the reason for our choices, in wise language, without insulting anyone, without stressing the atmosphere, without using a quarrelsome tone.”

“After consultations in our party’s bodies, we decided to support Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the presidential election”

Explaining that they decided to support President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a result of their extensive consultation and why they entered the elections from the AK Party lists, Yapıcıoğlu went on to say:

“There is an election ahead of us on May 14 and time is running out.  After we met with the President in January, ‘Will HÜDA PAR take part in the alliance or not?’  has been extensively discussed. In that meeting, we received an invitation both to support Presidential candidate Mr. Erdogan and to take part in the People’s Alliance.  We evaluated this in our authorized boards and as a result, we decided to take part in the alliance. In the presidential election, we decided to support the current President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.  We took this decision as a result of extensive consultations with all our organizations and opinion leaders. We took the pulse of our grassroots and listened to opinion leaders who are not from HUDA PAR, but who think about the country’s issues and have similar sensitivities with us on some issues, and a more or less picture emerged.  After consultations in our party’s bodies, we decided to support Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the presidential election, whether we are in the alliance or not. Then the details of the alliance continued to be discussed.  And as a result, with the effect of changing the election system, we decided to enter the lists.  We are going through a critical election, a critical juncture.  We want the presidential candidate we support to win. But in this system, if there is no parliamentary majority behind the person elected as the president if the parliamentary majority is someone else's, a troublesome political process awaits us, especially in a period when the political style is so harsh and the segregation is so sharp.  That's why we said that even a single vote should not be wasted.  There is only one way to do this, and that is to choose from the lists. If we were the decision maker, we think that it would be more advantageous for other parties in the alliance to enter with a joint list.  If this were so, there would be very serious changes in parliamentary arithmetic.  But when each party enters with its logo, if the other alliance does the same, there may still be a balance.  However, if one party enters from the joint lists and the other does not, the party that does not enter from the joint lists suffers a serious loss.”

After the event, Yapıcıoğlu left for Hatay to meet with the earthquake victims and have a fast-breaking dinner there. (ILKHA)