Former ruling AKP deputy criticizes government over graft allegations

ISTANBUL

Hakan Şükür said he did not even earn $4.5 million over the course of his 25-year-long football career, in a clear reference to money found in the house of the general manager of a state-run bank. DAILY NEWS photo

Istanbul deputy Hakan Şükür, the legendary former international football player who is openly close to Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen and resigned from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in December, has stepped into the debate over the graft allegations against the government.

Şükür said he did not even earn $4.5 million over the course of his 25-year-long football career, in a clear reference to money found in the house of the general manager of a state-run bank.

“How come you won’t believe that there is graft when $4.5 million was found in the house of a bank’s general manager. Even I don’t have that much money. I played football for 25 years at Inter, Parma, Torino, Blackburn and Galatasaray, and I certainly have a wealth. But everything is so confusing [when] a bank manager [becomes involved] in such [situations],” he said, speaking on the Bugün TV station late Feb. 3.

Şükür announced his resignation from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in a statement released on the evening of Dec. 16, only hours before a graft and corruption operation started. During the bribery raid, $4.5 million found in cash in shoeboxes in the house of Süleyman Aslan on Dec. 18, the general manager of the state-run lender Halkbank.

Speaking about the prime minister’s remarks that Şükür had come to the party and left it “on instruction,” in a reference to Gülen telling Şükür when to join and leave the party, Şükür said he was personally invited to the AKP by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.