CHP leader interrogates double standards in law, targeting Turkish PM’s son

ZONGULDAK

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu speaks to CHP members in the Black Sea province of Bartın, Jan. 3. AA photo

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on Jan. 3 has criticized Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the government, asking why his son did not testify as a part of an ongoing graft probe.

Kılıçdaroğlu targeted Bilal Erdoğan, who was summoned to testify after his name was allegedly involved in a graft scandal, while evaluating latest developments over Turkey’s General Staff’s official complaint for the investigation of an alleged “plot” in trials such as Ergenekon and Balyoz (Sledgehammer).

“Has another Recep Tayyip Erdoğan been governing this country for 11 years? He was saying everybody, even if it is his father, would testify at court. They told the then chief of the general staff to testify and he was arrested. He is now in prison,” Kılıçdaroğlu said. “Why is Bilal Erdoğan not going [to testify]? Is there a double standard in the law? Isn’t justice valid for everyone?” Kılıçdaroğlu asked. 

He also underlined the main opposition stated several times before the evidence had been fabricated and manipulated in the coup plot cases.

Kılıçdaroğlu also voiced his concerns over a truck, which was allegedly carrying weapons to Syria, criticizing the government for preventing a public prosecutor do his job.

“A public prosecutor, who protects the Republic, ordered to stop and search the truck, but they said you can’t,” he said, criticizing that they did not carry out the prosecutor’s instructions.

“They are intervening in Syria’s internal affairs. And are we going to say ‘yes’ to this [intervention]?” he said.

Police officers who followed and stopped the truck near the Reyhanlı district in the southern province of Hatay on the border with Syria were removed from their positions on Jan. 3.