Turkish opposition leaders slam government’s policies on local and national issues

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said in the southern province of Mersin that the current government’s policies were trying to diminish local Turkish brands by uncontrolled imports, using the Anamur banana, which is famous for its small and aromatic structure, as an example. 

“One of the brands is the Anamur banana. They try to limit this from time to time by uncontrolled imports. I am sure of this. We have bananas that are aromatic and delicious. It is our binding duty that they produce and earn more,” Kılıçdaroğlu said. 

Meanwhile, during his party’s election rally in the Black Sea province of Çorum, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) head Devlet Bahçeli slammed the decision by Turkey’s top judicial body to dismiss four prosecutors and one judge from their professions for being involved in the country’s biggest corruption case. 

“President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has long been eyeing the presidency position to guarantee the fate of his family as well as himself. Police forces have been rotated and judges and prosecutors have been dismissed from their professions to whitewash all those involved in the 17, 25 December [2013] graft probes. Some policemen have also been imprisoned by bribers. All that has happened is nothing but misled justice,” said Bahçeli.

The dismissal of four prosecutors and one judge from their professions by the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) sent shockwaves throughout the country on May 12. 

Prosecutors Zekeriya Öz, Muammer Akkaş, Celal Kara and Mehmet Yüzgeç and former judge Süleyman Karaçöl were all dismissed from their profession due to their roles in the corruption investigations launched on Dec. 17, and Dec. 25, 2013, which targeted four former ministers and three of those ministers’ sons.