CHP questions gov’t role in preparing coup conditions
ANKARA
AA photo
Turkey’s main opposition leader has questioned the role of the government in preparing the conditions for Gülenists within the army to stage a coup attempt on July 15, calling the judiciary to launch an investigation into the political will behind the attempted takeover.“What is the political will? It’s the one that uses today’s state of emergency; the one that has taken Turkey to the coup step by step,” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), told his parliamentary group on Oct. 18. “I call on all prosecutors probing this issue: Leave teachers and students alone. If you are to prosecute someone, it should be those who carried Turkey to the coup.”
Kılıçdaroğlu has long criticized the government for exceeding the limits of laws and widening the scope of the investigation in the aftermath of the July 15 coup attempt at the expense of creating around 1 million victims. Tens of thousands of teachers and civil servants have lost their jobs while many of them have also been prosecuted on suspicions of being linked to the Gülenist network blamed for the July 15 coup.
“I will apologize if even one word – not a sentence – is proved to be wrong. But, if what I have been saying is right – which is 100 percent right, by the way – then I should tell your conscience: You are only strong enough against the poor fellows and not your own men,” he said.
The CHP leader recalled that all military echelons had resigned in mid-2011 as a reaction to the detentions of numerous high-ranking generals as part of baseless accusations which caused the military personnel to lose their right to be promoted. Recalling that the government changed the law on the Supreme Military Council in 2013 in a bid to nix the return of these prosecuted senior military personnel, Kılıçdaroğlu asked, “Which one was the political will that allowed the promotion of so many FETÖ [Fethullahist Terror Organization] military personnel that staged the coup?”
Kılıçdaroğlu has long criticized the government for exceeding the limits of laws and widening the scope of the investigation in the aftermath of the July 15 coup attempt at the expense of creating around 1 million victims. Tens of thousands of teachers and civil servants have lost their jobs while many of them have also been prosecuted on suspicions of being linked to the Gülenist network blamed for the July 15 coup.
“I will apologize if even one word – not a sentence – is proved to be wrong. But, if what I have been saying is right – which is 100 percent right, by the way – then I should tell your conscience: You are only strong enough against the poor fellows and not your own men,” he said.
The CHP leader recalled that all military echelons had resigned in mid-2011 as a reaction to the detentions of numerous high-ranking generals as part of baseless accusations which caused the military personnel to lose their right to be promoted. Recalling that the government changed the law on the Supreme Military Council in 2013 in a bid to nix the return of these prosecuted senior military personnel, Kılıçdaroğlu asked, “Which one was the political will that allowed the promotion of so many FETÖ [Fethullahist Terror Organization] military personnel that staged the coup?”
