Jun 14, 2017

A prominent opposition member of parliament was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a Turkish court today, part of a widening crackdown by Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government against its critics.

Enis Berberoglu, a member of the pro-secular Republican People’s Party (CHP), was convicted of revealing state secrets. The veteran journalist who ran Hurriyet, the country’s most influential newspaper, before running for parliament was accused of having leaked footage shot in January 2014 of trucks operated by Turkey’s national spy agency, MIT, that were laden with weapons.

Turkey's judges are taking orders directly from the presidential palace, said CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu after an emergency meeting of his executive board.

The arms were allegedly destined for jihadi groups in Syria. It is an open secret that since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, Turkey was for many years the main conduit for weapons flowing to opposition rebels, including jihadis, seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

In March 2013, The New York Times reported that with the help of the CIA, Arab governments and Turkey had "sharply increased their military aid to Syria's opposition fighters." Quoting US and other officials, the report noted, "The Turkish government has had oversight over much of the program, down to affixing transponders to trucks ferrying the military goods through Turkey so it might monitor shipments as they move by land into Syria." The bulk of such deliveries originated from Esenboga airport in Ankara. The southern Mediterranean port of Mersin was the main hub for arms shipments to the rebels from Libya.