US supports Gülen to get rid of PM Erdoğan, senior PKK member claims

ISTANBUL

Radikal Photo

The United States is behind a plot against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and supports the Fethullah Gülen Movement to remove Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan from office, according to a senior member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

“Why has this issue been brought up on the eve of the [local] elections? It is obvious they want to influence the election results,” Cemil Bayık, a founding member of the PKK, said in an interview published in daily Vatan yesterday when asked about the political crisis that erupted when a graft probe was launched last December.

“On the one side Gülenist lawmakers in the AKP are forced to resign, on the other side the [main opposition Republican People’s Party] CHP is supported to prevent the AKP from getting the result it aims,” Bayık said, adding the real aim of the “plot” was to remove Prime Minister Erdoğan from his post and create an “Erdoğan-less AKP.”

“Who does the operation? The [Gülen] Movement. Who is behind it? The United States,” Bayık said.
The government’s move to shut down the test prep schools caused a huge rift between the AKP and the movement of the Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, which further swelled after the government accused the movement of orchestrating the graft probes and purged thousands of police officials and prosecutors.

According to the senior PKK member, the AKP was attacked at its “weak spot.”

“The AKP has presented itself as a power that fights corruption, that is why the operation started with that,” Bayık said. “Is there corruption? Yes. Is there bribery? Yes. If there were not, they could not have attacked it. It is true the Cemaat is trying to stage a coup, but this is not the whole truth. This coup stems from corruption and bribery.”