Key advisor defends Erdoğan over remarks on top court ruling

Nuray Babacan – ISTANBUL

AA Photo

A key advisor for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has criticized Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş’s remarks on the president’s comments over the top court ruling that led to the release of daily Cumhuriyet journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, saying the president’s statement had not been personal, but rather made as the head of state.

“The fact that our president criticized the Constitutional Court decision is not ‘putting up a personal position’ but a statement in the capacity of ‘the head of the state,” Mustafa Akış said in a tweet.

Kurtulmuş had said on Feb. 29 that remarks Erdoğan made over the Constitutional Court ruling only reflected Erdoğan’s personal view, 

“It is the Justice and Development Party [AKP] government, under the [then] Prime Ministry of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that implemented the right to individual applications to the Constitutional Court in Turkey. In addition, our president clarified his own personal position regarding the Constitutional Court ruling,” the deputy prime minister said.