CHP leader updates list of assets, challenges Turkish PM to do the same

ANKARA

According to Kılıçdaroğlu’s list of properties posted on the CHP’s website on March 3, there is no change in the declaration since he last publicized his assets in 2010. AA Photo

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), has updated his and his family’s declaration of property and called on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to do the same if he wants to disprove recent corruption claims.

According to Kılıçdaroğlu’s list of properties posted on the CHP’s website on March 3, there is no change in the declaration since he last publicized his assets in 2010.

Erdoğan’s properties were posted on the official website of the Prime Ministry in 2011, but have not been updated since then. They include 2,000 square meters of land in Rize worth 10,000 Turkish Liras, while his bank accounts possess 3,390,384 Turkish Liras, 25,000 euros and $199,867. He also has a debt worth 500,000 liras. This list does not include properties belonging to his wife, his two daughters, or two sons.

“Erdoğan became rich through politics. He was the one who said he was penniless when he entered politics. Then how come you have become one of the richest prime ministers in the world?” Kılıçdaroğlu asked yesterday during a rally in Kırklareli, a city in Thrace. “If you have become rich through politics, that means you are abusing the rightful share of the poor.”

Calling on those who have voted for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the past to look at their conscience when voting for politicians whose houses are full of money, Kılıçdaroğlu asked them not to be part of the unethical profit by casting their votes.

“Some $4.5 million has been found in shoeboxes [at the home of a state bank manager]. Who is his guarantor? The chief thief. So I ask my citizens who have voted for the AKP, are you going to continue to be the guarantors of a prime minister who is the guarantor of a bank manager who hides $4.5 million in shoe boxes?” he added.

According to the declaration of property, Kılıçdaroğlu and his wife, Selvi Kılıçdaroğlu, have four properties, two in Ankara, one in Tunceli and one in the Burhaniye district of Balıkesir, as well as shares in two different cooperative unions. They also listed eight paintings of prominent Turkish painters and one diamond ring. A 2004-model Renault Clio car belonging to son Kerem Kılıçdaroğlu was also declared. The Kılıçdaroğlu family has no declared money in bank accounts.