Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reacted quickly to the Feb. 25 leak of a recording purportedly of him and his son discussing on Dec. 17 — the day the graft probe hit the surface — how to conceal the family’s wealth from corruption investigators. Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who framed his March 30 local election campaign around the graft probe, also was quick to react to the leaked recording. “A prime minister cannot be a thief,” Kilicdaroglu said. “Erdogan should either take a helicopter and flee abroad or resign.” Instead, the prime minister scored yet another triumph at the ballot box a month ago, and appeared at the balcony of his party's headquarters in Ankara to give a victory speech — for the first time with his son Bilal at his side.
Bilal Erdogan has now filed a libel suit against Kilicdaroglu. Although it was not clear at first who filed the defamation complaint, CHP Deputy Chairman Bulent Tezcan said in a written statement that the party’s secretariat received a court summons on April 28 calling Kilicdaroglu to testify as a “suspect.” “We do not accept this summons for testimony as it fails to comply with the legal and judicial rules,” Tezcan said. He argued that state prosecutor Mehmet Demir, who called Kilicdaroglu to testify, is politically motivated, and that Demir received orders and directives to issue this summons in an effort to intimidate the opposition.
“According to Article 83 of our constitution, all elected members of the parliament can be invited to testify, but the prosecutors need to first send this request to the Ministry of Justice. The ministry forwards that request to the parliament with full explanation as to why this parliamentarian is being called to testify,” Tezcan said, noting that the prosecutor’s office did not provide any information at all on the summons. “This, running contrary to all these rules and norms, is a typical example as to how our judiciary has become politicized.”
Speaking to the Turkish media, state prosecutor Demir downplayed violating these legal procedures. “We invited him [Kilicdaroglu] to testify, and he declined. There is no need to create a scene,” he said. Demir argued that this was “his fault” as he did not pay attention to whom the complaint was filed against.
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