Main opposition CHP fires salvo against ruling party about corruption

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Hamzaçebi says the CHP is preparing to launch a corruption probe. DAILY NEWS photo

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) announced yesterday that it would soon introduce a proposal for a broad parliamentary investigation into corruption claims, without limiting it to a certain period of government.

CHP deputy parliamentary group chair Akif Hamzaçebi said his party would introduce the proposal to the Parliament Speaker’s Office later this week.

“It will be aimed at investigating corruption and claims of corruption, including the practices during AKP [ruling Justice and Development Party] rule,” Hamzaçebi said at a press conference in Parliament.

The CHP initiative came days after PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said an investigation would be launched to look into the three-party coalition which was in office between 1999 and 2002 and in which the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) was a partner. “We will look into their time. There was over 111 quadrillion in losses of banks, 246 quadrillion with interest. He [MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli] denies it, even with the facts. Three-and-a-half years was the length of their rule, and there is another extra 13.5 quadrillion in forced savings,” Erdoğan was quoted as saying in remarks published on April 14.

MHP confident

MHP deputy parliamentary group chair Mehmet Şandır, speaking to Anatolia news agency yesterday, questioned why Erdoğan acted belatedly on the issue even though his party has been in power since 2002.

“It is understood that we have touched a raw nerve and Mr. Prime Minister’s harmony has been stalled due to the sin of the destruction process which they call the ‘resolution process,’” Şandır said, referring to the ongoing peace process, which is aimed at ending the conflict between security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Recalling that Erdoğan was mentioning banks, he noted that Erdoğan was Istanbul metropolitan mayor between 1994 and 1998 and thus held responsibility in the run-up to the crisis in the early 2000s.