CHP to sue gov’t for ‘aiding terror’

Rifat Başaran – DÜZCE

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Turkey’s main opposition party will sue the government for supporting terrorism, its leader has said.

“This government and its predecessors have been the ones which support and abet terrorist organizations.

Our provincial heads of the party will take necessary steps in the following days,” said Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), during his visit to the northwestern province of Düzce on March 3.

Describing the support a legitimate government gives to an outlawed terrorist organization as a crime, Kılıçdaroğlu implicitly said his party would file a criminal complaint against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

“A legitimate government cannot support nor abet an illegitimate terrorist organization. This is a crime. However, this crime has been committed in Turkey and is still being committed,” the opposition leader said.

Kılıçdaroğlu said there was no terrorism when the AKP came to power in 2002.

“Turkey is now a lake of blood today. They ordered governors, ‘Do not touch terrorists.’ They made the east and the south east warehouses of weapons. We hear news of soldiers’ deaths every day,” he said.

“Turkey is one step away from catastrophe,” he added.

Commenting on statements by Mustafa Akış, the chief advisor of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Turkish Government Spokesperson Numan Kurtulmuş on criticisms President Erdoğan drew over his remarks on a recent ruling by Turkey’s Constitutional Court that led to the release of two Turkish journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, Kılıçdaroğlu pointed out that AKP lawmakers could not even compromise on the president’s remarks.

“The fact that our president criticized the Constitutional Court decision is not ‘putting up a personal position’ but a statement in the capacity as ‘head of state,” Mustafa Akış said in a tweet on March 2.

“Our president clarified his own personal position regarding the Constitutional Court ruling,” Kurtulmuş had said.