CHP deputies not surprised at leader’s claim of intelligence agency plot

ANKARA

A number of main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmakers have said they are not surprised by their leader’s claim that the government and the country’s intelligence agency are conspiring against the party.

Recalling that he served as governor before becoming a parliamentarian, CHP Isparta deputy Ali Haydar Öner said he received similar information regarding the involvement of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) with the CHP and conveyed this information to the party’s high ranks.

“As you know, having a surprise figure from within the AKP [the ruling Justice and Development Party] as the prime minister, the Dec. 17 and 25 [of 2013] corruption incidents and the tumult that emerged within the AKP as a result of all of these incidents; scenarios to shake the CHP were created to cover all of this up,” Öner said on Nov. 21.

He suggested that a chain of events that led to the holding of an extraordinary convention of the party in early September was also a part of such an intervention, which he dubbed a “psychological operation.”

In an interview with the Hürriyet Daily News earlier this week, CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu accused both the AKP government and the MİT for launching "media operations" to weaken the party’s image and stir fresh trouble.

CHP Afyonkarahisar deputy Ahmet Toptaş, who is a member of Parliament’s newly founded Security and Intelligence Commission, recalled that they had asked for an investigation at the time because they claimed the MİT was wiretapping CHP executives and deputies.

“However, the ruling party didn’t heed our call. If it was investigated, it would have been revealed that the wiretapping took place upon their own order,” Toptaş said, adding that the CHP would raise all of these claims at the Security and Intelligence Commission.

However, despite criticizing the nature of the relationship between the government and the intelligence agency, CHP İzmir deputy Türmen used the occasion to sarcastically criticize his own party.

“We have already been in sufficient turmoil. I’m not sure whether we need the MİT [for turmoil]. So, it is MİT causing all these issues,” Türmen said on Nov. 21.

“The MİT has been diverted from its goals. Who is using MİT against whom, it has gone completely rampant. The MİT has turned into an institution that protects the government’s interests, while it monitors and wiretaps the government’s opponents. At a time when the entire state has turned into a ‘party,’ the MİT shouldn’t be expected to stay out of this,” he added.