‘I am being wiretapped,’ Turkish prime minister says

SİVAS

AA Photo

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said he has been wiretapped, linking the eavesdropping issue to forces that are against a peaceful solution to the Kurdish bid.

“The Gezi protests began in May 2013, at a time when all of the armed elements [of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party – PKK] were about to leave Turkish soil,” he said while addressing his party’s provincial congress in Central Anatolian Sivas on Feb. 13.

“Then came the provocations of the parallel gang,” he said referring to the Gülenists, followers of the U.S.-based Islamic scholar, who is blamed by the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for organizing a coup attempt late in 2013.

“They wiretapped the president, the prime minister and now they are wiretapping me as the [new] prime minister,” he said.

“They organized a plot against the Foreign Ministry,” he said, praising the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for preventing the country from revisiting the 1990s, when the clashes between the military and the PKK escalated.

The prime minister said the government was working on a resolution process that projected a transaction to democratic politics after disarmament. He addressed the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), saying that all armed forces should leave the country.

The HDP is taking an active role in recent Kurdish peace talks.

A total of 13 suspects are accused of wiretapping Erdoğan’s office when he was prime minister. The government launched a large move on the Gülenist following a graft probe that began in December 2013, with both Erdoğan and Davutoğlu saying the struggle against them was ongoing.