The Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) by recommending the postponement of the elections to be held in our country on 24 June 2018, made yet another regrettable statement.

This statement of the PACE Monitoring Committee which is of political nature is contrary to the most fundamental principles of sovereignty and democracy. It overlooks the decisions of the Turkish Grand National Assembly which represents the will of our nation.

As we previously emphasized on several occasions, the state of emergency as an exigency of our country’s legitimate fight against terrorism, does not hinder the conduct of pluralist and genuinely democratic elections. Elections were held under the state of emergency in many other countries. The elections held in France in 2017 constitute one of the latest examples. As international monitoring reports have confirmed, all the elections in Turkey have been conducted in a democratic, free, fair and transparent manner.

Such prejudiced comments of those circles that suffer from lapse of reason when it comes to Turkey, display yet another saddening example of the double standards against Turkey.

This mindset that collaborated with terrorism and allowed Salih Müslüm, the leader of PYD, Syrian offshoot of the terrorist organization PKK to speak under the roof of the PACE, has neither the right nor the authority to lecture our country on democracy. Consequently, it is our National Assembly, which is elected by the will of the people, that decides when the elections are going to be held in our country.