CHP leader lashes out at government over ‘Ergenekon verdict’
ANKARA
Main opposition Republican People’s Party’s leader (CHP) Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has slammed the Turkish government over a court’s recent “Ergenekon verdict” for trying to distance itself from a trial which the government in the past strongly supported.
“Once people were accused of being part of Ergenekon, people were accused of being coup plotters. Whoever spoke out [against the government] was seen as part of the Ergenekon network,” Kılıçdaroğlu told lawmakers in his party’s group meeting.
“The phones of 60,000 people were tapped, 1,260 people were called to testify, while seven people died even before testifying. Now the prosecutor says there is no concrete evidence of the presence of Ergenekon,” he said.
“Now they say ‘we made a mistake.’ Who would be held accountable for those that died during the trial and those who suffered?” Kılıçdaroğlu added.
The opposition leader recalled that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan once admitted that “we were deceived” by FETÖ.
“They [the government] did whatever they [FETÖ members] demanded. They arrested people upon their [FETÖ members’] request,”
The prosecution of the Ergenekon case said on Nov. 30 the existence of the organization in question could not be conclusively proven.
“It has been found that the leadership, membership and criminal activity could not be determined of the organization, as well as its existence,” the prosecutors said of what they had called the “armed terrorist organization Ergenekon.”
The original Ergenekon conspiracy probe, dating to 2007, led to trials in 2013 of military officers, politicians, academics, and journalists. But the Supreme Court of Appeals later overturned hundreds of convictions in the case.
