If there is a parallel state ‘PM Erdoğan and his gov’t are accomplices’: CHP leader

Okan KONURALP ANKARA / Hürriyet

'The prime minister was happy with his life then. But when corruption and the illegalities of the government started to surface, he was disturbed,' Kılıçdaroğlu says. AA photo

Turkey’s main opposition leader has accused the prime minister and the government of keeping silent over earlier wiretapping concerns, amid media reports of eavesdropping targeting members of the government.

“The opposition, intellectuals, journalists, academics were wiretapped and the recordings were presented to [Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan,” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) told daily Hürriyet yesterday. 

“The prime minister was happy with his life then. But when corruption and the illegalities of the government started to surface, he was disturbed. If there really is a parallel state as Erdoğan says, he and the AKP [Justice and Development Party] have formed it. Erdoğan and his government are accomplices of this crime,” he said.

The CHP leader also said the country had been “dragged into chaos.”

“They came to govern, but dragged Turkey into chaos. Even the world can see that the country is stepping away from democracy, fundamental rights and freedoms. EU countries are following the developments with concern,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

He noted that ruling party officials had dismissed the opposition’s complaints about wiretapping in the past. 

“Who bought the wiretapping devices, did the government not pay for them? Now they are complaining that their illegally recorded conversations have been made public. The AKP side makes the illegal recordings. The tapes we play in CHP meetings are the legal ones. They were recorded on court orders,” the CHP head stated.

Kılıçdaroğlu also accused the ruling party of “robbing the country.” “What we have here is the state’s reflex, the state is being robbed and the state reacts to that like a living organism,” he said.