MHP leader calls on judiciary to investigate graft allegation

ANKARA

PM Erdoğan should disprove the allegations, and if not, he should resign, Bahçeli said, speaking at an election rally in Bilecik. AA Photo

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has called on judicial bodies, the chief prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals in particular, to launch an investigation into Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for corruption allegations.

The alleged recordings were “dazzling” and the prime minister would have to give an account of supreme criminal tribunal soon, Bahçeli said in a written statement Feb. 25.

“The judicial institutions, led by the Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals, should step in and investigate the allegations one by one,” Bahçeli said. “In addition, the summaries of the bribery accusations against former ministers should be brought to Parliament and the suspects from the Dec. 17 and Dec. 25 probes should be held accountable in front of the courts, along with the gang leader.”

Bahçeli also gave details about the phone record leaked to the Internet late Feb. 24.

“It has been reported that Prime Minister Erdoğan called his son Bilal asking him to gather with his brother Burak, uncle Mustafa and brother-in-law Berat to get rid of all the stolen money as soon as possible from his house. It is understood that the prime minister urgently and insistently asked for 2.2 billion [Turkish Liras] of dirty money hidden in different abodes to be dispersed,” Bahçeli said in his statement.

“If those conversations are true and nothing has been added, then it will be impossible to speak about the credibility, the humanity and, worse, the morality of the person in the position of the prime minister,” he added.

“This mentality that uses family as a haven for bribery, which accustoms his children to robbery, will have to give an account for both in the supreme criminal tribunal and in the public conscience, and will have to accept the ruling. Those days are not long,” he said.

Erdoğan should “not even think about” escaping blame by claiming the tapes were edited. Erdoğan’s government has lost all of its legitimacy over the allegations, said the MHP leader.

Erdoğan should disprove the allegations, and if not, he should resign, Bahçeli said, speaking at an election rally in Bilecik.