At group meetings, opposition leaders criticize AKP

Turkey belongs to all of us, and no one has the right to tell anyone to go away, said main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal yesterday, criticizing remarks made by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his recent visit to southeastern Anatolia. At his party's group meeting, Baykal said, "Mistakes in the fight against terrorism have brought Turkey to this point," adding, "Now he says that people have a right to defend themselves with guns. If people defend themselves with guns, what's your function?" In related news, at his opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) meeting, party leader Devlet Bahceli pointed to recent tension between Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Democratic Society Party (DTP). He said that political and moral sordidness in Turkey has reached frightening proportions, blackening Parliament, political parties and government agencies in the process.