Great granddaughter of Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II: ‘Enough is enough with the parliamentarian system’
Great granddaughter of Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II, Nilhan Osmanoğlu, has joined the ‘yes’ campaign for the upcoming referendum in Turkey.
Speaking at a conference in İstanbul about the life of Kösem Sultan, Osmanoğlu said: “Kılıçdaroğlu asks us ‘why hasn’t the parliamentarian been sufficient for you?’. And, we are saying: enough is enough with the parliamentarian system.”
Also sharing her views on social media and joining the online ‘yes’ campaigns, late Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II’s 5th generation great granddaughter Osmanoğlu reflected her views with the following remarks: “My vote is of course ‘yes.’ There are many reasons for this. I believe that the parliamentarian system has always given harm to people that I saw as men of the fight. If we are to give examples, I would ask, didn’t Menderes and his friends get executed because of the parliamentarian system? They were martyred through that. Coups were carried out at that time, too. When Kenan Evren had said ‘we hung people left and right’, those young people had gone (been executed) because of this parliamentarian system. Then, didn’t Turgut Özal get stuck in the Çankaya Palace (former presidential palace) because of this system? Not even an ambulance could reach there (the palace) when he had got poisoned. We can give several examples about the problems we have faced with the parliamentarian system. Didn’t our president (Erdoğan) receive restrictions because of a poem that he had read? İmam Hatips were shut down and our hijabi sisters were dragged on the grounds. This was all because of the parliamentarian system. Is this what a democratic country is? Kılıçdaroğlu asks us ‘why hasn’t the parliamentarian been sufficient for you?’. And, we are saying: enough is enough with the parliamentarian system. So, we say ‘yes’ to the presidential system.”
Also talking about July 15 coup attempt, Osmanoğlu said: “You know, we used to talk about it among friends and ponder about how we would react if a war of this kind was to start. We were questioning whether we could go up to the front like our Çanakkale martyrs, hold up arms, and fight... The conclusion we reached about this was not positive. And, maybe, this was the case for many of you. But then, on July 15th, there were reactions that people themselves could not even understand. If you had asked them (people participating demonstrations on street against the coup) the next day about ‘how they managed to do it’, they would have said ‘I don’t know.’ That feeling for the homeland and that love, which gathered many parties and ideologies under one roof... No matter what they do, they can never have that feeling lost...”