'Ruling AKP totally corrupt, should allow full probe', says MHP leader

ANKARA

DAILY NEWS photo, Selahattin Sönmez

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has become a corrupt political party with a majority of its ministers involved in bribery and corruption cases, the nationalist opposition leader has argued, while calling on the prime minister not to hamper investigations.

“The government has no place to hide. There is a multilayer graft network encircling politics. The AKP has got bribery dirt from top to toe. Those who bribed ministers turned them into puppets. It does not sound meaningful to us that Prime Minister Erdoğan is not aware all of these developments,” Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) told reporters at a press conference on Dec. 26.

Criticizing Erdoğan’s efforts to detract attention away from the huge graft and bribery operations, Bahçeli recalled that the prime minister himself and many of his ministers were alleged to have been involved in corruption cases in the last 11 years of their rule.

“Prime Minister Erdoğan is talking about a parallel state or a state within the state and is describing the corruption operation as a dirty operation. Today’s priority is corruption. Prime Minister Erdoğan and his government should avoid staining the law,” he said.

Underlining that Erdoğan was frequently talking about the existence of an illegal organization within the state, Bahçeli asked why he remained inactive against it in the course of his rule. “Is this a new organization? Who is its leader, where could it infiltrate in the state? Did this organization grab the state? When will you move against it?” asked Bahçeli.

The nationalist opposition leader recalled that one of Erdoğan’s closest aides had said that the Turkish army was plotted against by the Fethullah Gülen community, which led to the Ergenekon, Balyoz and other cases, and asked whether the government tolerated such plots in a bid to weaken the Turkish military.