AKP stymies parliamentary inquiry into corruption

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has a majority in the Turkish parliament, on March 19 rejected the opposition’s request to discuss the details of the indictments targeting four former cabinet ministers in a corruption case. The hours-long extraordinary session of parliament, which could have opened the way for the four to stand trial, instead ended with an acknowledgment of the AKP’s request to form an investigative commission into the allegations at a time to be determined later.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag accused the opposition of having ulterior motives: “This debate started on Dec. 17. It has been three months since then. Why haven’t you asked for any inquiry until now?” Bozdag asked. “You did not need an indictment to open this issue to discussion in parliament. The news reports were enough. But you are using this issue to score points in the upcoming March 30 election.”

Akif Hamzacebi, parliamentary group chairman for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), objected. “This is not a simple issue. The magnitude of the alleged corruption is huge. We are not in the habit of proposing investigations into issues based on news reports. Due to our respect for parliament, we waited for the indictments,” Hamzacebi said. “And that is why we demand that these indictments be read in full here in parliament so that each member can decide freely how to proceed with these serious allegations.”

Hasip Kaplan, the parliamentary group chairman for the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), agreed. “There is no parliamentary regulation or a legal code that prevents us from reading these indictments in full here. And even if there is, our morality and conscience should make us choose transparency here,” Kaplan said. “Also, there are numerous examples in the past where indictments about us were read in full here, and there was no issue about it then. Is there a double standard?”