CHP leader slams intel agency for not being ‘national’

EDİRNE – Anadolu Agency

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Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has slammed Turkey’s intelligence agency (MİT) for not being “national,” accusing them of serving "only one party."

Speaking at his party’s provincial meeting in Turkey’s northwestern province of Edirne, Kılıçdaroğlu accused the MİT of only being in the service of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). He recently claimed that the MİT was spying on the CHP.

“The MİT has to be national. An institution that serves a political party is not national. The party that uses this information is also not national,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

The CHP head had earlier claimed that the government and the MİT were conspiring against the CHP through media operations in order to weaken the party’s image and stir discord.

Davutoğlu challenged the main opposition leader to prove his claims with concrete evidence, denying that he had instructed the MİT to take a position against any party or group.

The debate was further escalated after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan waded in, calling on Kılıçdaroğlu to abandon “politics based on misgivings.”

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) head  Devlet Bahçeli, meanwhile, said the CHP deserved a satisfying explanation on the issue.

Kılıçdaroğlu also repeated his claims that he could not take Davutoğlu as the addressee in this topic because Davutoğlu is "not a real prime minister, but rather received his instructions from Erdoğan."