MHP leader Bahçeli urges Turkish PM to prove leaks are fake

İZMİR - Anadolu Agency

Devlet Bahçeli addressed his party’s supporters in Aegean province of İzmir. DHA photo

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has called on the prime minister to apply to the necessary state institutions to discover whether the voice recordings allegedly revealing corruption are real or fake.

“Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, you have all state institutions under your command to decide whether the recordings are montaged. Go to universities, apply to [the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey] TÜBİTAK. If this isn’t sufficient then apply to international institutions. Do whatever you can and decide whether these are montaged or not,” Bahçeli said during a rally in İzmir on March 4. 

He was referring to the voice recordings allegedly between the prime minister and his son Bilal Erdoğan about removing a large amount of money from the latter’s house on Dec. 17, 2013, the day when a massive corruption and graft probe went public, in which sons of three former ministers, businessmen and bureaucrats were arrested. All suspects were recently released pending trial, while the prime minister has repeatedly denied the authenticity of the recordings.

MHP head Bahçeli said the upcoming March 30 elections would be a chance to hold the AKP to account. “Rallies are being planned to cover up corruption. These rallies are prepared by [the Housing Development Administration of Turkey] TOKİ’s big platforms and there are people transported [from different places],” he said.

Bahçeli visited İzmir’s Bayraklı and Karşıyaka districts as part of his campaign in the city, having arrived in İzmir on March 3. Some of the leaked recordings reveal Prime Minister Erdoğan manipulating media coverage, and Bahçeli said this indicated an “authoritarian regime.”