Turkish politics, football will get rid of hooliganism, Erdoğan says

İstanbul, Mar 21 (DHA) – “Hooliganism” will soon be a thing of the past in both Turkish football and Turkish politics, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Monday at a symposium on football in Istanbul ahead of the April 16 constitutional referendum, suggesting that “violence” and “coups” would no longer get people anywhere.
“As the quality of politics improved, our nation eliminated those who believe in getting power via rigging, cheating, coups, threats, destructive politics and no elections,” the president told the meeting of top football players and administrators.
“Still, we see in [debates over] the recent constitution change that there are still [politicians] who want to achieve results with hooligan policies, just like those in football,” he said, adding that the country was already eliminating football hooligans.
“Those who do not have confidence in the power of their ideas should avoid lies, slander and violence” he said.
Turkey is heading for a referendum on April 16 on a charter change that will introduce an executive presidential system, with Erdoğan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) arguing that it will introduce stability.
“Instead of discussing the content of the constitutional amendment articles, they [the opposition] have tried to confuse the minds of our citizens with lies – that exceed the power of imagination – such as that the parliament will be closed or the country will be divided” the president said.
“There is no such a thing. The authority to terminate parliament by no means belongs to the president; there is no such a thing. The nation decides on all these issues and when an election call is made, the president and the parliament do it together,” he said.
“Just as in sports, the essence of politics is rivalry and racing. This race is in the first phase to win at the ballot box and in the second phase to serve the nation,” he said.
Erdoğan, a former footballer himself, said he learned much from the game in terms of “disciple, teamwork and loyalty.”