Deputy calls on PM Erdoğan to prove claims about Gezi, graft probe
With the reverberations of a corruption scandal still dominating Turkish politics ahead of critical local polls, an independent deputy who resigned from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) after opposing a party proposal to shut down prep schools has called on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to prove the claims about the Gezi Park protests he raised last summer.
Although nine months have passed since the Gezi protests broke out, Erdoğan has failed to come up with convincing evidence to back up his claims that the anti-government protests were an internationally sponsored plot to weaken a rising Turkey and its economy, the former AK Party deputy said.
In an open letter to the prime minister, former AK Party deputy İdris Bal vehemently criticized the prime minister for his ultra-polarizing language and discourse which, he says, leads to alienation among broad segments of society.
In strong criticism of the prime minister, Bal called on Erdoğan to act as a responsible politician free of any hate speech and slander. If not, he said, the prime minister should resign to serve the country's interests rather then stoking antagonism and division among the society.
Posing over 20 questions, the former AK Party deputy demanded evidence and clarification from the prime minister on a number of issues and claims raised by Erdoğan since last summer. His questions centered around a sweeping corruption scandal that has implicated Erdoğan and many of his close associates, the Gezi protests, and the government's reaction to the corruption investigation, among other matters.
According to Bal, Erdoğan never feels the need to back up his claims with strong evidence, but rather just uses them as a political tool and tactic to outwit his opponents and persuade his own electoral base. This, however, according to the former AK Party deputy, is troubling and disturbing given the fading credibility of the prime minister, who should have to provide a legal, rational ground for any of his claims about the Gezi protests, the graft probe and the prosecutors involved in the investigation.
The questions deputy Bal asked are as follows:
1. After the Dec. 17 anti-corruption operation, you leveled serious allegations against a prosecutor who you once praised for his work in the past and who had been provided with an armored vehicle for protection. You said that prosecutor [former graft prosecutor Zekeriya Öz] went abroad 22 times last year and had others pay his vacation expenses. You never raised the issue again. Will you prove your claims?
2. You praised an Iranian businessman who stands accused of being the ringleader of a suspicious money-laundering and gold-smuggling ring set up to dodge sanctions against Iran. But news reports suggest that the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) presented you with a report about [Reza] Zarrab [concerning his relations with a number of ministers] eight months ago. If this report true, why did you make such a statement [praising Zarrab]? Why did you not give credit to the MİT report?
3. You highlight the national will in every speech you make. Why were the summaries of proceedings about ministers [over allegations of bribery and tender rigging] sent to Parliament, the real representative of the national will, so late? Why were the files and their content about the ministers abridged [as opposed to using the original files]?
4. You said you had received a letter from Mr. Fethullah Gülen. You said the content of the letter involved bargaining. The same letter was also delivered to the president and there was no political bargaining in it. When it came out, you never raised the issue again. Why did you make such a claim? Will you explain this? Will you apologize for that claim, one that has turned out to be bogus and wrong?
5. Why don't you ask for a technical analysis of the leaked audio recordings that are purportedly of your son in a European country or in America? No one is satisfied by the science and technology minister's explanation in which he said, 'I feel that the recording was doctored.' Will you make an attempt to have a technical examination of the audio recordings carried out by objective and independent institutions that everyone can agree on?
6. You purged close to 10,000 police officers, claiming they had connections to a "parallel structure." Wouldn't the removal of experienced and specialized police officers in certain areas lead to problems vis-à-vis counterterrorism and intelligence units? How can you explain the reassignment of thousands of police officers without concrete evidence in the middle of winter, without even thinking about their families? Isn't it a contradiction that you are treating the police this way now even though you had declared the police forces heroes during the Gezi protests? Wouldn't the removal of specialization within the police forces lead to serious problems for the National Police Department?
7. Must there not be a proper political discourse as required in diplomacy? Should you not be concerned with the implications of politicians' aggressive discourse as concerns the people? Are "blood-sucking vampires," "hashashins," "bloodsuckers" and "viruses" proper words for a prime minister? Are you aware of the fact that you are turning Turkey into a Lebanon instead of a pluralistic, first-class democracy with a strong civil society like EU countries and the US by declaring those who invite you to the rule of law and democracy and who criticize you as "others," "illegal" and "members of a parallel structure"?
8. You have mentioned the "parallel structure" in every one of your speeches since Dec. 17 [when the graft investigation broke]. What are the criteria for the existence of a parallel structure, according to you? On what kind of sociological and scientific measurement are you relying while making such a claim? Why don't you say anything about the real "parallel structure," which has its own courts, taxation and which threatens you and the country on every possible occasion [a reference to the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK)], while you declare a group [the Hizmet movement] a parallel structure without any evidence?
9. You targeted Prosecutor Muammer Akkaş, who attempted to launch a [second] corruption investigation on Dec. 25. You chose to confront him. "We aren't done with you. We know who you are working for. If you don't say it, we will make it public," you said. That claim also turned out to be bogus and groundless. Will you offer clarification to this issue?
10. When it comes to leaked video recordings of some politicians' private lives, you said those were public, not private. Are the leaked audio recordings about you not more public than the claims surrounding those politicians? Why don't you respond more substantially? Why don't you speak based on scientific research?
11. You too often use words such as "pineapple" and "salt-cellar" mentioned in phone conversations allegedly belonging to Mr. Fethullah Gülen and his friends. Isn't it a stark contradiction that, while you rebel against the sound recordings, you often use such remarks? Even if those sound recordings of Gülen are authentic, the content of the phone conversations does not include any illegal act. But it is a fact that you cite those sound recordings in your speeches often. Why don't you do what is necessary concerning the serious allegations about you in those sound recordings that you label as doctored?
12. Video footage of a woman who, you claimed, was attacked in İstanbul's Kabataş neighborhood last summer has been released. And according to the video, no attack took place. You persistently told the public that there was video footage of the alleged attack but you failed to provide that video footage thus far. Will you share those video recordings? If there is no video footage, will you apologize to the people and hold those who misled you accountable?
13. You claimed that protesters drank alcohol in a mosque during the Gezi protests; you claimed there was video footage of it. The muezzin [of that mosque] denied that claim and was reassigned to somewhere else. This reassignment was interpreted in the media as the result of the imam's refusal to lie [to back up your claim]. If there is any video footage to prove your claim, will you release it? Or, if not, will you apologize for your groundless claims which led to social unrest and resentment in addition to dangerous polarization in the society?
14. You claimed that the Gezi Park protests were retaliation against Turkey and were coordinated by factions from inside and outside [the country]. And you also said you possess significant evidence for that and would soon unveil the network of treachery to the people. Although nine months have passed, you have yet to release a single document about your claim. When will you release these documents and evidence?
15. The claim of Interior Minister Efkan Ala, who said some businesses profited from an ongoing corruption probe by increasing their dollar reserves before the Dec. 17 anti-corruption operation, against Bank Asya has never been raised again. The minister told the press that he had proof. So far, no proof -- not about Bank Asya nor any other institution -- has been presented. Will you ask for the proof from the minister? If there is no such proof, will you hold the minister accountable for his false claim?
16. You said the US was behind the anti-corruption operation and you leveled serious allegations against the US ambassador in Ankara. You backtracked from your claims upon warnings from the US. Will you deliver documents proving any US link to the operations to the relevant institutions? If not, do you accept that there is no document or proof and that your allegations are groundless?
17. You said money found stashed in shoeboxes in the house of [state-run] Halkbank Manager [Süleyman Aslan] on Dec. 17 as part of the graft investigation was taken as part of a donation and was to be delivered to the Çorum İmam-Hatip High School. But the budget for that school was allocated by a ministry. Will you offer an explanation for that contradiction?
18. You said the villas [which allegedly belong to Erdoğan] in Urla [a town in İzmir province] were built 35 years ago. But almost all of those villas, except for a few of them, were constructed over the past few years according to Google Earth [satellite imagery]. Would you consider providing further clarification for your claims, or will you retreat from your remarks?
19. When several trucks were intercepted upon an order from a prosecutor near the border with Syria, officials told the press that those trucks were carrying aid to Turkmens. But the Turkmens denied this. There were serious claims about the cargo of the trucks. Some claimed those trucks were carrying money, while others raised the possibility of arms shipment to radical al-Qaeda-like groups which only help legitimize Bashar al-Assad among the international community. If the cargo of the trucks is humanitarian aid under National Intelligence Organization's (MİT) control, then shouldn't governors be informed about it? Will you offer an explanation about the cargo of the trucks that will put the people's worries to rest?
20. Is there not a contradiction in your behavior when you jubilantly welcome new deputies, politicians who come from other political parties, but when AK Party deputies who have been referred to the disciplinary board for their criticism, they are considered to have committed treason by you and other high-level party officials?
21. You said that during a phone call with [US] President [Barack] Obama on Feb. 19, you had asked for Gülen to be extradited as a threat to Turkey's national security. You claimed that Obama had viewed this request "positively" and replied by saying, "I got the message." But the White House denied this in a statement. With this, you went down in history as the first prime minister that was corrected by a US president. Will you offer an explanation for this situation which has harmed Turkey's credibility and image in the eyes of the Turkish people and around the world?
22. Will you offer an explanation on the reports pointing to the questioning of students by inspectors, an act similar to those oppressive practices seen during the Feb. 28 coup period, which you criticized on every possible occasion?
23. State institutions are not one party, one ideology or one man, but the people's institutions. There have been mounting concerns over the politicization of state institutions in recent times. Will you enlighten the people on this issue?
To avoid further damage to the Prime Ministry and to your personality, I demand an answer to these questions, which are being widely circulated among the people. The lack of a response to these simmering questions inflicts serious damage on the Office of Prime Minister and our country. But the most disturbing scenario, in my view, is that these questions have no answers at all.
If this evil scenario is real, then, for the sake of our country and until these questions are answered, the best way forward is for you to abandon the post of prime minister.
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