Wary support given by CHP to coup probe

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

The leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, addresses his lawmakers in Parliament. AA Photo

The leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, lent support yesterday to the probe into the “post-modern coup” of 1997, but raised misgivings that the judiciary has become a political tool in the government’s hands.

“One cannot expect justice from a judiciary which has collapsed and submitted itself to government control. Vengeance cannot produce justice,” he said, speaking at his party’s parliamentary group meeting. “There is no need for cheap heroism. I’m sorry, but I don’t trust the justice system in a country where the judiciary is not independent and impartial.”

Kılıçdaroğlu cited a public opinion poll in which 67 percent of the respondents said they would not expect a fair trial if they were to appear before a court for trial. He gave also the example of Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, who was executed after the 1960 coup. “There was a court and a trial, but the verdict was never accepted in the people’s conscience.”

The CHP leader charged that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who belonged to the ousted Welfare Party, was a product of the “post-modern coup,” and had been “raised in an incubator” with U.S. support.

Education law on way to court

Separately, CHP deputy group chair Muharrem İnce said the party will ask the Constitutional Court today to scrap the controversial recently passed education law, if they manage to complete the paperwork. The law, which profoundly overhauls Turkey’s education system, would also introduce a course on the Quran as an elective in middle and high schools.

In further remarks yesterday, Kılıçdaroğlu maintained his criticism of a provision in the law that exempts the so-called FATİH project, under which the government would buy millions of tablet PCs, from the Public Tenders Law. “They [the government] say they are not involved in corruption. I have a simple question: Then why do you exempt education procurements from the Public Tenders Law?” He also urged Erdoğan to publicly reveal his wealth.

Erdoğan rejected Kılıçdaroğlu’s claims, arguing that the infrastructure projects the government has completed since coming to power are proof that it is not misusing national resources.