CHP deputy files criminal complaint against deputy PM over ‘intel trucks’ statement

ANKARA

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Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Murat Emir has filed a criminal complaint against Deputy Prime Minister Tuğrul Türkeş, accusing him of “revealing secret state information.”

Türkeş, had said in a televised interview in November 2015 that Turkish intelligence trucks bound for Syria, which were allegedly carrying arms for Syrian rebels, were not intended for Turkmens. said in November 2015. 

“I swear to God those arms were not going to the Turkmens,” Tuğrul said at the time, when he was still a deputy for the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), criticizing then Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for claiming that the trucks were for Turkmens in Syria.  

CHP deputy Emir noted that Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Can Dündar and Cuhmuriyet Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gül were also convicted for “revealing state secrets” over reports on the same trucks, while CHP deputy Enis Berberoğlu was also convicted for allegedly supplying them with the story in early 2014. 

In a written statement on June 20, Emir said Türkeş’s remarks are within the scope of the relevant article of criminal law, reading: “Anyone, who discloses information that must be kept secret by the State in terms of security or internal or external political benefits, shall be sentenced to five years to 10 years in prison.” 

He noted that journalists who reported news of the weapons-loaded truck faced charges of “espionage,” but Tuğrul faced no legal investigation for his remarks.

Emir said this showed that Turkey’s justice system is under the control of the government, as it “did not touch Türkeş, who revealed crucial information” but convicted Berberoğlu “without legal evidence.”