Turkey's main opposition MP files a criminal complaint against deputy PM over MİT trucks case
A criminal complaint against Deputy Prime Minister Tuğrul Türkeş has been filed by main opposition party CHP’s MP Murat Emir who accused the deputy of ‘revealing state secrets’ by giving a statement on national TV back in 2015 about the controversial MİT (National Intelligence Organization) trucks case.
Türkeş, who was still the deputy chair of MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) at that time, had given statements contradictory to the claims of then PM Ahmet Davutoğlu and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan about the MİT trucks stopped and searched by Turkey’s prosecutors and security forces at Syrian border.
While both Davutoğlu and Erdoğan had claimed that the trucks were carrying ‘humanitarian aid to Turkmens in Syria’, then MHP deputy Türkeş had said: “I swear to God, those weapons were not going to the Turkmens. I say this because I know it!”
While journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül from Turkey’s opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, as well as, the CHP lawmaker Enis Berberoğlu have faced legal action over the reports on these MİT trucks alleged to have carried arms to Syrian rebels, Türkeş – who is now the deputy prime minister for the government of AKP – has not been faced any legal action although his claims are the same.
Refering in his statment of complaint to the same law under which CHP MP Berberoğlu has been arrested, CHP MP Emir wrote: “Anyone, who discloses information that must be kept secret by the State in terms of security or internal or external political benefits, shall be sentenced to five years to 10 years in prison.”
Trying to point out the double standards in Turkey's justice system and how judiciary in Turkey is under the influence and control of the AKP government, Emir said in a written statement released on June 20th that ‘while journalists and CHP lawmaker faced charges of espionage for reporting on the case, AKP deputy Tuğrul Türkeş has faced no legal investigations for his remarks’.
