Turkish PM to answer much speculated question

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

PM says he will reply to coup commission’s question on ‘Dolmabahçe’. AFP photo

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said he will reply to a parliamentary coup commission’s written questions on past military activity, including a question on his much-speculated “Dolmabahçe meeting” with former Chief of Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt in 2007.

Speaking to reporters yesterday before departing for Pakistan, he said he received the questions late Nov. 20 and would work on the answers during his overseas visit. Erdoğan also said he would return the answers before the Nov. 27 deadline.

Erdoğan met Büyükanıt on May 4, 2007, at Dolmabahçe Palace during which the men were rumored to have cut a secret deal.

Responding to a recent call from Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu to suspend the activities of NATO’s radar base in eastern Turkey to back up his tough talk against Israel on the grounds that data from the site is reportedly provided to the Israelis, Erdoğan said Turkey was hosting the system because it was a member of the alliance and that NATO had long had a base in the area.
Erdoğan also criticized Devlet Bahçeli, leader of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), suggesting the latter had no connection with the Islamic world.

“Which country have you visited?” Erdoğan asked Bahçeli. “Have you participated in any meeting of the [Islamic world]?”

Asked if the government would take any new steps following the submission of legislation to permit court defenses in suspects’ mother tongues, Erdoğan said some further steps would be included in the fourth judicial reform package.