Gov't not sincere on Feb. 28 inquiry: CHP
ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News
Main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu slammed the government for using an intelligence report prepared by the so-called Western Working Group (BÇG) during the pre-election period in 2011, stating that he was personally a victimized as a result.“They’re saying that they’re going to settle accounts [with February 28], and yet they use reports done by pro-coup individuals during the elections. How do they expect me to believe the government’s sincerity?” asked the Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader, daily Radikal reported yesterday.
The February 28 post-modern coup “should be examined with regard to the history of democracy. Its target must be revealed. No one objects to a healthy judicial process. All pro-coup individuals should be questioned – not only those with military ranks, but the civilians as well. If there is law and justice during this process, if the judiciary can do its job without being surrounded by politics, then we will always stand by it,” said Kılıçdaroğlu.
“This whole thing has turned into a cry for revenge,” he added, criticizing the special authority courts which he claimed cannot yield healthy investigation results. The government, according to Kılıçdaroğlu, is using these investigations to change the country’s agenda.
“Those who applauded and defended the February 28 process are now against it,” he said, recalling the report compiled against him during that time, when he served as the head of the Social Security Authority (SSK). “The Prime Ministry serviced this report to the current government, and they used it against me during the elections,” explained the CHP leader.
“I filed a lawsuit against the Prime Ministry as an institution, and they are defending the report in the lawsuit,” he said. “No one can convince me that the government is trying to settle accounts with February 28. This smells of deceit.”
The BÇG report that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used against the CHP leader during the elections claimed that Kılıçdaroğlu employed Kurdish people, alleged terrorists and his own relatives, without the required testing. The report also claimed that Kılıçdaroğlu attended the Kurdish Institute in Paris, conspired to rig bids on tenders, played bridge with members of the judiciary to influence lawsuits and hid the bank accounts of the SSK.
The report labeled Kılıçdaroğlu a “pro-Kurdish separatist,” and suggested “precautions” against his activities that “provided a threat to the unity of the country that thousands of soldiers died to protect.”
The BÇG was established by the military to monitor “anti-secular” activities, according to allegations, masterminded by former Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Çevik Bir.
