Former minister disputes existence of 'parallel state'

Ertuğrul Günay, former Justice and Development Party (AK Party) minister of culture and tourism, said on Thursday that there is no “parallel state” trying to destabilize Turkey, only an illegal structure that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his inner circle have created to block corruption investigations.

Günay held a press conference along with two other İzmir deputies, İlhan İşbilen and Erdal Kalkan, both of whom resigned from the AK Party on Dec. 17, when a massive corruption scandal came to public attention. At the press conference, Günay hinted at the emergence of a new political party. Some AK Party members protested at the meeting by chanted slogans in support of the prime minister.

Stating that the Turkish people long for democratization, Günay said that this entails treating people with dignity. In addition to democracy, people also demand economic progress and justice, claimed the former AK Party minister. He also said that the inability of the current political system to meet these demands creates a “void” in the political landscape.

“I call on the existing parties to say, if they cannot fill the void ... the birth of a new child [party] is inevitable, I will tell this good news to everyone.” Günay also said that he wants everyone to know that he and his supporters will not leave the country to people who have committed a “civilian coup” and that he does not take “ instructions from wallets, but [his] conscience.”

Claiming that Erdoğan reacts harshly to everyone who pays attention to the corruption allegations, Günay said that “instead of taking a stand to support rights, the law and justice, Erdoğan had placed himself in opposition to the corruption investigation.” Erdoğan did everything in his power to obstruct justice including introducing new laws to halt the graft probe, the former minister said, adding that Erdoğan had committed a “veiled coup” against the rule of law in Turkey.

“There is no such thing as the 'parallel state' in Turkey, as Erdoğan alleges,” Günay said, reading from the joint statement that the three deputies had written.

Referring to the corruption investigation which came to light on Dec. 17, 2013, implicating several members of the Cabinet along with some of their family members, Günay said that the probe had revealed massive corruption in which the organs of the state were abused in exchange for bribes.

“As members of a party who asked people to vote for us to fight against prohibitions, poverty and corruption, we ask the government to act determinedly to disprove these allegations,” Günay said. However, despite the expectations of both himself and the public, the prime minister chose a method rare in any democratic state and removed the police officers and the prosecutors investigating the probe from their positions, even though he had praised them in the past, according to Günay.

The former minister also said that Erdoğan only started to blame the police and the judiciary when the investigations started to implicate him and his inner circle.

Responding to criticism that he did not raise these issues while he served as minister, Günay showed newspaper clips of some of his old statements, especially those about unplanned urbanization and construction activities in İstanbul. “I said that they would build a mall even in the historic Sultanahmet square, if they were allowed to,” he said.

Touching upon the insulting rhetoric directed at the Hizmet movement and Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen by the prime minister, Günay said that none of those insults and accusations were mentioned prior to Dec. 17. Praising the educational activities of the Hizmet movement, Günay said that some people opposed turning a blind eye to corruption and preferred to defy the government and that he considered this to be a commendable attitude.

Günay also described the alleged voice recording of former EU Minister Egemen Bağış, in which he mocks verses from the Qur'an, as shameful, blasphemous and a crime.

Published on Today's Zaman, 20 March 2014, Thursday