Turkey turning into semi-open prison: CHP

ANKARA

Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu addresses his weekly parliamentary group meeting in Ankara, Oct. 21. AA Photo

The government aims to turn Turkey into a “semi-open prison” with its contentious new security code, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said on Oct. 21, addressing his weekly parliamentary group meeting in Ankara.

“Now they are bringing in a new code. It offers fines for those who cover their faces [in protests]. But there is already a fine for this. Why are you cheating the people?” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

“The country is at risk of being turned into a semi-open prison,” he added, also criticizing the government’s poor record on freedom of expression.

“Can journalists write freely in Turkey?” the CHP head asked, ruling out recent claims by a Cabinet member that there was “no political pressure on press.”

Kılıçdaroğlu also expressed outrage over the annulment of the huge corruption probe that included senior government figures, likening the prosecutor who annulled the probe to Nazis.

Ekrem Aydıner, a prosecutor from the anti-terror and organized crime unit of the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office, decided on Oct. 17 not to proceed with the case against 53 graft suspects in the Dec. 17 investigation.

CHP head Kılıçdaroğlu slammed Aydıner’s decision.

“If there is no proof of bribery and corruption in this file, then there is no proof in any corruption file on earth … There lies corruption worth 247 billion liras and this prosecutor sees no evidence,” he said.

The corruption case was also on the agenda of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli at his own party’s weekly parliamentary group meeting.

Bahçeli questioned what would now happen to the 1.5 million liras found during a search in the house of Interior Minister Muharrem Güler’s son, along with the $4.5 million found stashed in shoeboxes in the house of former Halkbank General Manager Süleyman Arslan.