‘Robbers going after police,’ CHP says over detention of officers

ANKARA

'This [operation] should be evaluated as a retaliation against the Dec. 17 [corruption and graft] operation,' Akif Hamzaçebi said. AA Photo

The main opposition party has criticized the latest massive police operation, labeling it “retaliation against the Dec. 17, 2013 graft probe” and suggesting that “robbers are going after the police.”

“This [operation] should be evaluated as a retaliation against the Dec. 17 [corruption and graft] operation,” Akif Hamzaçebi, the deputy parliamentary group leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) told reporters on July 23.

Hamazaçebi said the ongoing operation against the police officers who conducted the Dec. 17 corruption operation was "purely political," in the same way as the Ergenekon, Balyoz (Sledgehammer) and other cases in which scores of military officers, academics, journalists and others were arrested.

“The only thing that changed is the subject,” he added.

Dozens of senior police officers deemed to be linked to the Fethullah Gülen movement, or what the government calls the “parallel state,” were detained on July 22 on the grounds of espionage and illegal wiretapping. The detainees were all officers that carried out the massive corruption and graft operation engulfing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, his family and four of his ministers, at the end of 2013.

Hamzaçebi accused Erdoğan of being behind the latest operation and underlined that the CHP would "continue to stand against unlawfulness."

CHP spokesperson Haluk Koç, in his weekly press conference, also criticized the operation. “What do the police do in other countries? They go after thieves. But in Turkey things are reversed. The thieves are chasing the police,” Koç said. 

Those detained are the officers who carried out Ergenekon and other such political cases with the support of the government in the past, he added, stressing that the government was now using the same questionable tactics against its erstwhile allies.

“Things have changed for a certain group. Those who were plotting [against the army, prominent journalists and others] are now the subjects of a plot. That’s why we have always emphasized an independent judicial system free of political tutelage. That’s why we have always underlined the principle of the separation of powers. That’s why we have always said everybody will one day need justice,” Koç said.