MHP leader urges probes to target high-ranking Gülenists
ISTANBUL
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Opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has said the ongoing prosecutions against supporters of the organization behind the July 15 coup attempt should initially target politicians and top-level civil servants, adding aiming at low-ranking officials and ignoring high-ranking ones would create victimization.Speaking during his party’s presentation of a development program for eastern and southeastern Turkey, Bahçeli said the authorities were neglecting “the leadership cadre” of the Gülenist organization, the suspected group behind the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey, in their legal and administrative investigation and were rather concentrating on suspects at the lowest levels. Bahçeli said that such a move would create victimizations and once the “real names” behind the failed coup attempt were uncovered, others would be revealed easily.
“For example, if a civil servant who used ByLock is being arrested, while a politician or a high-ranking official who is also involved in the same act is being ignored, this would create a victimization,” said Bahçeli, referring to the mobile app suspected of being used by the supporters of Gülen’s organization for internal group communication. He also urged the authorities not to remain indifferent to the rights and demands of the “innocents.”
“The traitor named Adil Öksüz is still on the run but someone who has the smallest complaint against him/her or who is charged with being a supporter of FETÖ [the Fethullahist Terror Organization] is getting detained. This would not be a consistent and fair situation. The most important of all is that no one can be treated as a convict before there is a court verdict,” said Bahçeli.
The MHP head also lent support to the government in its fight against terror, saying that his party was ready for any kind of “constructive cooperation and close contact,” adding if serious and permanent measures were not taken, terror would “encompass” Turkey.
“For example, if a civil servant who used ByLock is being arrested, while a politician or a high-ranking official who is also involved in the same act is being ignored, this would create a victimization,” said Bahçeli, referring to the mobile app suspected of being used by the supporters of Gülen’s organization for internal group communication. He also urged the authorities not to remain indifferent to the rights and demands of the “innocents.”
“The traitor named Adil Öksüz is still on the run but someone who has the smallest complaint against him/her or who is charged with being a supporter of FETÖ [the Fethullahist Terror Organization] is getting detained. This would not be a consistent and fair situation. The most important of all is that no one can be treated as a convict before there is a court verdict,” said Bahçeli.
The MHP head also lent support to the government in its fight against terror, saying that his party was ready for any kind of “constructive cooperation and close contact,” adding if serious and permanent measures were not taken, terror would “encompass” Turkey.