Turkish opposition urges Erdoğan to apologize

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) ‘has fully surrendered to terrorists,’ says MHP’s Büyükataman. AA photo

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has slammed Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over his remarks that he personally sent the intelligence chief to speak with Kurdish militants, demanding an apology for earlier disagreements on the issue.

Erdoğan’s remarks show the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) “has fully surrendered to terrorists” and that the National Intelligence Institution (MİT) had descended “into the abyss of treason,” MHP Deputy Chairman İsmet Büyükataman said in a written statement.

Büyükataman recalled that Erdoğan had used the label of “dishonorable” for those who spoke of secret talks between Ankara and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) back when the contacts were still kept secret. “The Prime Minister must immediately apologize to the nation and our community,” he said.

The statement also called on Erdoğan to explain what he meant when describing MİT chief Hakan Fidan as a “secret box.” It also asked the Prime Minister to address allegations that authorities had colluded in the creation of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), the purported urban wing of the PKK, as a vessel to legitimize PKK militants who would be released from jail to lay down arms and integrate into political life.

“[Erdoğan] says he will not waste his secret box. What about the sons of the nations who were wasted by the terrorists? 

What other secrets does he have? Where is the country going in this whirlwind of lies?” MHP 
Deputy Group Chair Oktay Vural said.