Probes do not mean more democracy: BDP

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

The co-chair of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), Selahattin Demirtaş, voiced skepticism over the “post-modern coup” investigation yesterday, arguing that the government was more interested in consolidating its own power than deepening democracy.

Demirtaş lent support to the probe, but expressed pessimism over whether it would strengthen Turkish democracy. “When you settle scores only with the coup plotters, you consolidate your own power. But if you settle scores with the entire coup mentality and culture, you strengthen democracy. The government is currently settling scores with the coup plotters and consolidating its own power. Is that a bad thing? No, but it’s inadequate,” he said.

Demirtaş stressed that institutions such as the National Security Council and the Higher Education Board, which are part of the legacy of military coups, “are today under the government’s command.” He added that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was “no different” from Çevik Bir, referring to the general who led the “post-modern coup” and was jailed pending trial this week.

Mocking Erdoğan’s harsh rhetoric on the coup probes, Demirtaş said: “You would think he had prostrated himself before the tanks and resisted the coup. Look at the archives, there is not a single statement Erdoğan made at the time.”