ANKARA: A Turkish former interior minister once dubbed Turkey’s Iron Lady and seen as a potentially strong challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched a political party on Wednesday after months of speculation.
Meral Aksener delivered a defiant speech promising a “strong, happy” Turkey at the official launch of the Iyi (“Good”) Party in the capital Ankara.
“We have hope. We have dreams. We want a rich Turkey. We have strength. We want a fair Turkey… we want a free society. We want a happy Turkey,” she said during an address to an audience waving Turkish flags.
She was cheered by thousands of supporters and founding party members in a hall surrounded by the party’s blue and yellow sun logo and banners of modern Turkey founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The party’s slogan is “Turkey will be good”.
Aksener, 61, was a member of the opposition right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) until she was expelled in September 2016.
There has been the frenzied talk of Aksener running against Erdogan in the presidential election in November 2019 when Turkey’s parliamentary system will formally become an executive presidency.
