Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) chair Ozgur Ozel has hit out at the UK’s PM and Labour Party chair, Sir Keir Starmer, for keeping mum amid attacks on its sister party, The Guardian reported on April 11.

The Labour leadership is making a historic mistake with treating the jailing of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu as a domestic Turkish issue, Ozel has told the British daily in an exclusive interview.

“The loser of this process, not just in my eyes but in the eyes of democratic forces worldwide, is Erdogan in Turkey and Starmer at the international level,” he has further targeted the UK PM as saying.

Sister parties

“After this is all over, we will remember the silence of our friends, not the loud voices and negative comments of our enemies,” the chair of the CHP, a member of the London-based Socialist International, has added.

In 2013, the UK’s Labour demanded to be downgraded to observer status at the Socialist International is a club of social democrat political parties across the globe, citing ethical concerns and its plans to develop international co-operation through new networks.

Ozel references the Socialist International with calling UK Labour their sister party.

Junta governs Turkey

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, imprisons those who disturb him politically and Turkey is governed by a junta that is afraid of elections, according to Ozel.

If he cannot deal with him politically, Erdogan would seek his arrest, he also said.

“It is not right to make unprincipled negotiations with Erdoğan out of security concerns. Having Nato’s first largest army in the hands of Trump and Nato’s second largest army in the hands of an autocrat does not help anyone,” he has also noted.