CHP requests inquiries against 4 ex-ministers, Erdoğan

August 21, 2015, Friday/ 12:49:53/ TODAY'S ZAMAN / ISTANBUL

A deputy from the Republican People's Party (CHP), Fikri Sağlar, has submitted six separate proposals for inquiries to be launched in Parliament into corruption and bribery allegations against four former ministers and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, including an inquiry into trucks that allegedly carried weapons to opposition forces in Syria.

The proposals were prepared by Sağlar, who is a deputy from Mersin, and presented to his party's administration on Friday. In four of the proposals he asked Parliament to launch separate inquiries against four ex-ministers -- Zafer Çağlayan, Egemen Bağış, Muammer Güler and Erdoğan Bayraktar -- and President Erdoğan over the corruption and bribery allegations directed at them in the major Dec. 17, 2013 corruption investigation that was later blocked by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government using pro-government jurists.

However, a reliable source from the CHP told Today's Zaman that Sağlar's action was an individual one and the move should not be attributed to the whole party. The source continued by saying the reason for this is because the party believes such moves will not bring any concrete results under the country's current political circumstances, and recalled that Turkey is now heading towards a snap election that is expected to be held on Nov. 1.

Today's Zaman also asked Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) officials about Sağlar's move; however, as of press time, they said they were still trying to understand the recent developments, and added that they do not want to comment on the issue yet.

If Sağlar's proposals are accepted by the CHP, the party will submit the proposals to Parliament to start the inquiries against the four former ministers and Erdoğan.

In a development that has attracted widespread domestic and international criticism and dismay, a pro-government prosecutor on Oct. 27, 2014, decided to drop corruption and bribery charges against 53 suspects. The former ministers, who were forced to step down from their posts, are accused of accepting bribes and establishing and running a criminal group, among other things. Three of them resigned after the major corruption operation became public, while one of them, Bağış, was removed from his post. All four have denied any involvement in wrongdoing.

Erdoğan and some members of his family were also implicated in the corruption investigation.

Since the investigation was made public, Erdoğan, who was prime minister at the time of the scandal, has sought to discredit the prosecutors and police officers behind the investigations by accusing them of working to oust the AK Party from power. Those prosecutors and police officers, along with tens of thousands of others, have been reassigned.

CHP's request for inquiries against MİT trucks

In the other two proposals submitted to Parliament on Friday, the CHP deputy asked for President Erdoğan to be investigated over Syria-bound trucks that were involved in another scandal and were run by Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MİT).

In January of last year, trucks bound for Syria -- which the government said were being run by MİT -- were intercepted by gendarmes in two separate incidents in the southern provinces of Hatay and Adana, after prosecutors received tips that the trucks were illegally carrying arms to Syria. In May, the Cumhuriyet daily published photos and a video that confirmed that there were arms being carried in those trucks, contrary to the government's earlier assertion that the trucks were carrying humanitarian aid to Turkmens in war-torn Syria.

According to a report published by Cumhuriyet in May, there were six steel containers in the trucks which contained a total of 1,000 artillery shells, 50,000 machine gun rounds, 30,000 heavy machine gun rounds and 1,000 mortar shells. All of this evidence was registered in the prosecutor's file on the MİT truck case, the report said.

The four prosecutors who were involved in the investigation into the Syrian-bound trucks -- Adana Chief Public Prosecutor Süleyman Bağrıyanık, Adana Deputy Chief Prosecutor Ahmet Karaca and Adana Prosecutors Aziz Takçı and Özcan Şişman -- were suspended at the beginning of this year by Turkey's top judicial body.

At the beginning of May, the prosecutors were arrested, together with former Adana provincial gendarmerie commander Col. Özkan Çokay, who was also involved in the interception of the trucks.

They are being charged with "attempting to topple or incapacitate the Turkish government through the use of force or coercion and exposing information regarding the security and political activities of the state."

Keywords: CHP , four ministers , Erdoğan , parliamentarty inquiry , proposals