MHP's Türkeş: PM has smear campaign, but no evidence against Hizmet

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been attacking the Hizmet movement, a faith-based organization, for almost three months, but has failed to produce any evidence to support his allegations, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Deputy Chairman Tuğrul Türkeş said on Sunday.

Türkeş, son of MHP founder Alparslan Türkeş, slammed Erdoğan, saying: “He [Erdoğan] expects everyone to respect the presumption of innocence for a bank general manager in whose house police found millions of dollars hidden in shoeboxes, as well as for a minister's son who had seven safes at his home, while Erdoğan doesn't think the Hizmet movement deserves the same right. Don't the followers of the movement have the right to be presumed innocent? Does this legal right only apply to sons of ministers and their children as well as Erdoğan's close circle of friends?"

Speaking in Sivas at a presentation of MHP candidates for Turkey's local elections on March 30, Türkeş emphasized that the MHP has called on its grass roots to stay calm, not resort to violence and not take to the streets in response to “provocative actions,” adding that any disputes should be settled at the ballot box.

“While the MHP calls on its grass roots to be calm, Prime Minister Erdoğan does everything he can to polarize people at every turn. Erdoğan portrays the main opposition [Republican People's Party, or CHP], the MHP and the Hizmet movement as being on the same side, against the government, as well as accusing them of being against himself. But if you are involved in bribery and corruption, the entire nation stands against you. You keep money at home that you could not put in the bank. It is unclear where this unspecified amount of money came from. It was obtained through illegal activities. It is ill-gotten money, and you cannot construct religious vocational [imam-hatip] schools or mosques with this ill-gotten money. You cannot turn these constructions into political benefit, since they are built with ill-gotten gains,” Türkeş said.

Türkeş also slammed Erdoğan for his position on a recent series of leaked voice recordings suggesting that the prime minister and his son Bilal were involved in corruption: “Erdoğan tries to defend himself by claiming that there is a Hizmet movement plot against him and denying the authenticity of these audio recordings. But if Erdoğan thinks he is right and was exposed to spying activities, then he should have filed a lawsuit against the members of the Hizmet movement. If the movement is such a dangerous and threatening structure, then you should take action to pursue legal proceedings. However, there has not been a single legal complaint from Prime Minister Erdoğan or any prosecutors against the Hizmet movement for almost three months. No document was presented to any judicial institution about them. If you had resorted to judgment, you would have been cleared of all blame so far. Prosecutors would investigate the corruption accusations against you and the allegations against the Erdoğan family. Why hasn't Erdoğan launched legal action against the Hizmet movement in the last months?”

Published on Today's Zaman, 17 March 2014, Monday