Standing against a white backdrop that boosted an image of Turkey’s parliament, leaders of six opposition parties made a joint declaration Monday on restoring the rule of law and freedoms in Turkey after two decades of “unchecked one-man rule.”

“The unchecked powers [of the president] has deepened the problems of Turkey,” Muharrem Erkek, deputy chair of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said as he explained the 40-page accord to an audience of party members, journalists and representatives of the nongovernmental associations in Ankara. 

“The presidential system (which was launched by the Justice and Development Party [AKP] in 2017, a year before Erdogan was elected president) has led to an arbitrary one-man rule as the president took over the role of the legislative, executive and judiciary through wide-ranging and unchecked powers. We are determined to build a new system [of strengthened parliamentary democracy] based on the mistakes of the past,” he added.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the social-democratic CHP, and his long-standing ally Meral Aksener, leader of the center-right Iyi Party, were joined by Ali Babacan of the DEVA Party, Ahmet Davutoglu of the Future Party, Gultekin Uysal of the Democrat Party and Temel Karamollaoglu, leader of the Saadet Party, in signing the interparty agreement. The six parties have been working on a political cooperation accord since September 2021 and agreed on the principles two weeks ago. They have, however, left the signature ceremony to Feb. 28. The date marks the anniversary of the 1997 “post-modern coup,” when the country’s generals toppled the coalition government of Necmettin Erbakan, mentor of President and AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Karamollaoglu. Aksener was the interior minister of the toppled government.