Turkey's major opposition party said yesterday it would issue a call to President Abdullah Gül to resign when he completes five years in office, as Parliament debated a controversial government-sponsored bill to fix Gül’s term to seven years, Hurriyet Daily News reports on Thursday.
“If the draft is approved as it is, we will call on President Gül to step down on August 28, 2012, in line with the Constitution. A two-year extension will put Gül in a questionable position,” Akif Hamzaçebi of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) said.
Abdullah Gül was elected for a single seven-year term in 2007, but under constitutional amendments approved at a referendum, presidents became entitled to once-renewable, five-year terms. The opposition argues Gül should be bound by the amendments.
The Republican People’s Party is Turkey's oldest political party promoting secular democracy. It was founded in 1919 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of theTurkish Republic.
