AKP, CHP exchange fire over coup as referendum ballots print
Turkey's ruling party and opposition leadership are trading accusations of complicity and cowardice in the July coup in a race to discredit each other as the constitutional referendum nears.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the bravest Turk of all?
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and members of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), along with their supporters in the media, are accusing and mocking Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), for allegedly fleeing the putschists during the failed coup attempt in July.
Pro-Erdogan outlets have been splattering videos and images allegedly showing Kilicdaroglu at Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul first being informed of the coup attempt and then returning to the terminal and waiting for the putschists’ armored vehicles to retreat. Once they withdrew, Kilicdaroglu supposedly left the airport. Although some videos of Kilicdaroglu have appeared on YouTube, they fail to corroborate the AKP's version.
The row started April 3, when Kilicdaroglu repeated his January allegation that the coup attempt was “controlled” and that Erdogan and the AKP “knew about the coup in advance.” The CHP chairman also said that 120 to 180 out of the AKP's total 317 parliamentarians use the messaging app ByLock, which the Turkish government believes was one of the main means of encrypted communication between followers of the Pennsylvania-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom they accuse of masterminding the coup.
