Azernews.Az

ANKARA – Turkish main opposition party’s leader has claimed Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s efforts to reopen the country’s border with Armenia have resulted in Turkey’s "losing Azerbaijan", its ally and Armenia’s long-time foe, local Hurriyet newspaper reported.

Republican People's Party (CHP) chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu, addressing a meeting of the party in Izmir, directed pounding criticism at Erdogan’s government on a number of issues, including foreign policy, the situation in Turkey after the June 12 parliamentary elections, which were won by the ruling AKP party, and the planned Nabucco gas pipeline.

"The prime minister, who until recently had been deceiving his people by concepts like ‘the Kurdish upshot’, today supports tough action [against Kurds]," Kilicdaroglu alleged. "They promised an ‘Armenian upshot’, but we have both estranged ourselves from Armenia and lost Azerbaijan. They said ‘Nabucco’, but for years, there has been no sign of it coming into being. Over nine years, even nine centimeters of the pipeline have not been laid."

Kilicdaroglu also said the government had pledged Turkey would join a customs union with Syria, but not only did it fail to do so, but also began to threaten Syria with war just three months later.

The opposition leader continued that regarding the Libya issue, the Turkish government first said "how can this be NATO’s business?" but then backed down from its statement.

"This list [of the government’s failures] can be extended further," Kilicdaroglu said, charging that each of the rows that have occurred in the past two months "is enough to bring an end to the AKP government".

The party chairman also criticized Turkey’s policy toward Israel. Speaking to reporters, Kilicdaroglu commented on Erdogan’s accusing him of "serving Israel".

"Who is serving Israel? Who has been conferred with a medal of the Jewish lobby in the United States? Was it me or Erdogan? I have never -- and under no circumstances -- have worn a monk’s robe. But Erdogan was the one who said ‘if necessary, I could put on a monk’s robe". Moreover, I have never co-chaired the Great Middle East Project, never supported it. When thousands of Muslim women faced aggression in Iraq, I did not wish US soldiers success. Erdogan did."