Erdoğan implies main opposition CHP leader's involvement in espionage case

ANKARA

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has implied that an ongoing probe into espionage and the leaking of secret state documents to media outlets can also reach main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, as one of his deputies is already behind bars in the same case.“The leader of the main opposition is obviously trying to muddy the waters over concerns that charges which led to the imprisonment of one of his lawmakers may reach him as well. Don’t get surprised if Kılıçdaroğlu’s link on the issue related to the jailed lawmaker is revealed,” Erdoğan said at a Justice and Development Party (AKP) meeting in the southern province of Antalya on Aug. 13.“I hear different news coming from prison. ‘I will speak if I am not freed,’ the imprisoned person says,” Erdoğan added, referring to CHP Istanbul Deputy Enis Berberoğlu, who has been in jail since mid-June.Berberoğlu was sentenced to 25 years for leaking confidential state documents to the media that allegedly revealed the National Intelligence Organization’s (MİT) shipment of weapons to groups fighting in Syria.Some pro-government media outlets reported that Kılıçdaroğlu provided the documents to Berberoğlu after obtaining them from members of the Gülen network.Kılıçdaroğlu launched a historic “justice march” from Ankara to Istanbul after Berberoğlu’s arrest in a bid to stress on growing judicial problems in Turkey. But for Erdoğan, the march was solely an action taken by Kılıçdaroğlu to create a mess in the country. “His purpose was nothing to do with justice but to create a mess,” he said.Claiming that Kılıçdaroğlu in an interview with German magazine Focus urged German investors and citizens not to come to Turkey because of security issues, Erdoğan said, “First he tried to blame the magazine but when proven that he said all these, he said ‘I say these things everywhere.’ This proves that he made this urge to Germans on purpose. Shame on you. Whatever you say about such a betrayal has no importance.”Erdoğan also vowed to fully clear Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ) members from the AKP, calling on all his fellows to inform the party management about FETÖ-linked members who managed to remain unexposed until now.“We cannot show the smallest tolerance to these people. We cannot harbor anybody related to FETÖ under the roof of our party. Do inform us about these people before it’s too late and we’ll give them the gate,” Erdoğan said.