Main opposition CHP files censure motion against minister for ‘doping’

ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News

Suat Kılıç says positive tests show that ministry is working against doping. AA photo

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has filed a censure motion against Youth and Sports Minister Suat Kılıç, arguing that “he has failed to prevent doping incidents and humiliated Turkey.”

The motion was filed with the Office of the Parliament Speaker on Nov. 22 by a group of CHP deputies led by Sakarya deputy Engin Özkoç.

The Youth and Sports Ministry has not implemented the provisions of the Anti-Doping Convention, despite the ministry’s stated commitment to combat doping, the deputies said in the motion, Anadolu Agency reported.

According to the deputies, doping has increased every day since 2004 and accelerated in 2013, “surrounding Turkish sports like a plague.”

“Kılıç has recently humiliated and discredited sports and Turkey in the eyes of the international community, hasn’t revealed the reasons behind doping incidents, which are against sport’s ethics and spirit, and hasn’t fulfilled the duties and responsibilities assigned to him by law,” they also stated.

The image of Turkish sports was overshadowed over the summer when about three dozen athletes tested positive for drugs. The controversy was often cited as one of the main reasons for Turkey’s failure in its bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games in Istanbul.

In August, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) announced two-year bans for nine Turkish athletes, including two teenagers, who tested positive for anabolic steroids. Six of those cases involved field athletes testing positive for stanozolol at Turkey’s national university championships, held in May.

Earlier in the year, the IAAF had asked the Turkish federation to investigate Olympic 1,500-meter champion Aslı Çakır Alptekin and two-time European 100-meter hurdles champion Nevin Yanıt for alleged doping violations.

In June, eight Turkish athletes, including 2004 Olympic hammer silver medalist Eşref Apak, were caught doping, and dozens reportedly failed targeted tests ahead of the Mediterranean Games this year, which were hosted in the southern province of Mersin.