Coup inquiry turns into cover-up operation, says CHP head Kılıçdaroğlu

ANKARA

DHA photo

The legislative and judicial processes to investigate the July 2016 coup attempt are subject to the influence of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said, arguing that the ruling party is using its power to “cover up the political leg of the coup.”

“All the state institutions are organized for a counter-coup,” Kılıçdaroğlu said in a parliamentary group meeting of his party on May 30, arguing that the AKP had staged a “counter-coup,” the infrastructure of which was established by the July 15 coup attempt.

“AKP militants were assigned to all judicial and top elective bodies,” he said.

Criticizing a draft report by a parliamentary commission to investigate the coup attempt, Kılıçdaroğlu said the AKP had deliberately blocked the coup inquisitions to engage in “a cover-up.”

“If a government complains about a coup, it is entitled to reveal the perpetrators and put all the putschists in front of the judiciary. If not, then the real putschists are all there!” he said, reiterating his earlier argument that July 15 was a “controlled coup.”

“It is not a panel to investigate the coup but to cover it up,” he said.

“Why have the chief of General Staff and National Intelligence Agency’s undersecretary not given any statement to the commission? Why haven’t they come to parliament? Because the ruling party has not allowed it. How can I believe that this ruling party is investigating this coup in an independent and impartial manner?” he said.

Arguing that the AKP was responsible for the Gülenist movement gaining influence within state institutions, Kılıçdaroğlu said: “According to the report, members of FETÖ infiltrated into the state. What infiltration? They were inserted into the state.”

Apart from the commission’s investigation, Kılıçdaroğlu also argued that the judicial process in the courts related to the coup were under influence of Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ and the government.

“The bill of indictment of the prosecutors investigating the coup case are collected by the AKP,” he said.

“Now the justice minister asks for the indictment, they amend it and then give it back to the prosecutors and tell them ‘now you can give it to the court,’” he said.


‘Illegitimate constitution’

Likening state of emergency regulations to a “coup period,” Kılıçdaroğlu said democracy and the constitution had been “completely suspended.”

“Turkey is currently being governed by an illegitimate constitution. Some 159 journalists are in prison. They do not allow anyone to oppose them,” he said.

“Do you know why daily Cumhuriyet columnist Kadri Gürsel is in prison? Because he had a phone conversation with two people who have ByLock [an application which believed to have exclusively been used by Gülenists]. He has been in prison for months,” he said.

“Akın Atalay is much worse. The reason for his arrest is that ‘the son of a person, who Atalay got to do his floors, sold merchandise to a company which is under investigation.’ What does that have to do with Akın Atalay?” he said, referring to daily Cumhuriyet’s CEO.

“The government says that it will waste you. Where is justice?” Kılıçdaroğu added.

He also mentioned Barbaros Muratoğlu, the Doğan Group’s Ankara administrative representative, who was arrested on Dec. 15, 2016, on charges of “helping an armed terrorist organization.”

“The grounds of his arrest is that he was pictured on the right side of Fethullah Gülen and that the two buttons of his jacket were up. He is a journalist. Are there any journalists that haven’t visited Gülen? Are there any AKP lawmakers that haven’t? They were going in bulk,” he said.

“Can there be a more absurd thing than that? Which justice, which morality?” he said.