Ankara-Sana
The leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), the largest opposition party in Turkey, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, revealed that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had bought 13 private planes for himself instead of firefighting planes, in a stinging criticism of the lenient regime's handling of forest fires raging in the country since last Wednesday.
The fires broke out in 7 provinces: Adana, Kayseri, Antalya, Kütahya, Mughal, Mersin and Osmaniye, causing great losses and destruction.
Turkish newspaper Zaman quoted Kilicdaroglu as saying during his first visit to Antalya province after the fires that Erdogan bought 13 private planes for himself, while he could have bought one plane for himself and 12 other firefighting planes to put out the fires that occur annually in the country.
While helicopters from Russia and Ukraine are participating in extinguishing 1,140 burning points, and a participation from Azerbaijan is awaiting, Kılıçdaroğlu told Erdogan, "I wish you had bought firefighting planes instead of your own."
Kılıçdaroğlu explained that Erdogan has been in power for 19 years. If one firefighting plane is purchased each year, Turkey will have 19 aircraft for this purpose, adding, “Every year they take measures from scratch as if we are witnessing such fires for the first time, and this is the biggest weakness of the government that governs.” Turkey, there is no planning or foresight, where fires break out every summer and expect losses of life and property, so why does Erdogan not take precautions in time.”
He added, "The Turkish Aviation Association had 19 planes and 19 pilots to put out the fires in 2002 distributed in Istanbul, Izmir, Çanakkale and Edremit, while three of them are constantly flying in the air to immediately intervene in the event of a fire, so where did these planes go?"
Six people were killed in forest fires that broke out in Antalya, southwest Turkey.