Turkey: Main opposition defends Izmir mayoral candidate

By Baris Gundogan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu on Friday defended his party's mayoral candidate for the Aegean province of Izmir.

In a morning news show appearance at Fox TV, Kilicdaroglu said Tunc Soyer “should not be judged” by what his father, Nurettin Soyer, did during Turkey's 1980s political turmoil.

CHP's decision to nominate Tunc Soyer as mayoral candidate for Izmir has been criticized recently, mainly because his father was a public prosecutor in the 1980s -- known to be demanding death sentence of 220 people from the nationalist wing, including the founder and former leader of Nationalist Movement Party Alparslan Turkes.

"Why do you judge children because of their father or vice versa?," Kilicdaroglu asked. "It is not democratic to blame [Soyer] for his father's lawsuit many years ago."

Kilicdaroglu also said that Tunc Soyer had a "successful" tenure as mayor of Seferihisar, a district of Izmir.

"We will be strong in metropolitan cities. Hopefully, we will win Ankara, Istanbul, Antalya, Mersin, Bursa, Izmir. Our candidates are in the field, working very hard," he said.