Opposition: PM Erdoğan has one face in Europe, one in Turkey

ANKARA

Prime Minister Erdoğan is a two-faced politician, CHP Deputy Chair Umut Oran says. CİHAN Photo

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a two-faced politician who shows his democratic face in Europe and his would-be dictator face in Ankara by quashing the rule of law, a leading member of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has said.

“Erdoğan is speaking like an apostle of democracy in Brussels, but acting like a would-be dictator in Ankara. He is destroying the state-governed rule of law, intervening in the independence of the judiciary, hindering public servants who are trying to fulfill their duties and trying to tie up the courts, which make decisions on behalf of the nation, to himself,” CHP Deputy Chair Umut Oran said in a written statement released on Jan. 23. 

In a bid to show Erdoğan’s self-contradictory words and deeds, Oran recalled a number of remarks delivered by Erdoğan while in Brussels.

“In Turkey, nobody has a problem on the issue of separation of powers. Nobody has or can have a doubt over the separation of powers within the democratic parliamentary system,” Oran quoted Erdoğan as saying.

“During the same hours, it came out that the Justice Ministry undersecretary and a member of the HSYK [the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors], Kenan İpek, called İzmir Chief Prosecutor Hüseyin Baş, who ordered an operation into corruption at the TCDD [Turkish State Railways] Port Operation Directorate, and asked for a halt to the investigation,” Oran added. 

He was referring to a conversation between a Justice Ministry official and the İzmir prosecutor, the minutes of which were read out on Jan. 21 by CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. The excerpt that Kılıçdaroğlu recited had the signature of Baş and was also kept on record by the HSYK, which is currently at the center of a political storm over its composition and authorities.

Prime Minister Erdoğan’s one-day visit to Brussels was his first visit to the EU capital in five years.