Erdogan sub-contractor of Western powers: Turkish opposition leader

“The CHP advocates Turkey’s interests in international platforms. Those who portray our policy as being against Turkey’s national interests are the sub-contractors of Western hegemonic powers,” Kemal Kilicdaroglu was quoted as saying by the Turkish Hurriyet Daily.

    “They [the Turkish government] are pursuing policies against national interests by sub-contracting,” Kilicdaroglu added.

Kilicdaroglu made the comments on July 11 in response to Erdogan’s criticism of the CHP attitude regarding a Turkish F-4 Phantom that was shot down by Syria in June.

“The attitude of the chairman of the CHP is an anti-national one. The attitude of the chairman of the CHP is one that encourages Turkey’s enemies and those who hope to invade Turkey,” Erdogan said on Wednesday.

On June 22, Syria said its air defense forces shot down a Turkish F-4 Phantom in the Syrian airspace “according to the laws that govern such situations.” The aircraft crashed into the Mediterranean Sea.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told TRT television on June 24, “According to our conclusions, our plane was shot down in international airspace, 13 nautical miles from Syria.”

However, Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said in a press conference in Damascus a day later that the Turkish warplane “violated Syrian airspace, and in turn Syrian air defenses fired back and the plane crashed inside Syrian territorial waters.”