Turkish government committing ‘murders of justice': Opposition MHP

ANKARA

MHP leader Bahçeli accuses the ruling AKP of committing 'murders of justice' to divert attention from bribery and corruption. AA Photo

The police raids on media organizations in Turkey are an “oddity that needs explanation,” according to Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, who accused the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of committing “murders of justice” to divert attention from bribery and corruption.

“The AKP government has long been committing murders of justice to veil bribery, drop corruption from the agenda and divert attention to other directions. The principles of morality and the law have been intentionally violated through the discourse of a ‘parallel structure,’ which has provided a shelter and a propaganda tool for the ruling party for a year,” Bahçeli said in a written statement released on Dec. 16.

“The AKP has been striving to mute dissident voices, silence the free press and hamper freedom of expression and information. It has been using its entire power [to this end],” he added.

The Dec. 14 police raids targeted a newspaper and a television station allegedly affiliated with U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, a one-time ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who has turned into one of his biggest critics.

“In Turkey, which we want to believe is being governed with democracy and law, the arrangement of a raid into a media outlet and the detention of journalists and television directors under the pretense of mind-blowing accusations is an oddity that needs explanation,” Bahçeli said.

“The repetition of such irregularities and injustices, which have been seen in so-called coup plot cases, is very saddening,” he noted, in an apparent reference to the Ergenekon and “Balyoz” (Sledgehammer) coup plot cases.

The MHP leader also said that while “corruption gangs and groups that set their eyes on the state coffers were being protected … the police who struggle against crime and criminals is suffering through everlasting operations.” This is the product of “a revengeful and corrupted” administration, he added.