Turkey’s main opposition to file complaint against AKP for ‘aiding PYD’

ANKARA

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) will file a criminal complaint about the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), on the grounds that it engaged in contact with the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) despite a previous court ruling designating it as a terror organization.

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has instructed Istanbul deputy Mahmut Tanal to initiate the legal action against the government over the fact that PYD leader Salih Muslim was hosted in Ankara in the past.

“Now I am asking you, Mr. Recep [Tayyip Erdoğan], with what patriotic sentiments did you invite Salih Muslim to Ankara despite the court ruling and the Supreme Court ruling that designated it as a terrorist organization?” Kılıçdaroğlu said on Feb. 6 in an address to his party group at parliament.

He was referring to a 2014 local court ruling, approved by the Supreme Court the following year, that defined the PYD as a terrorist organization.

“They invited PYD leader Muslim to Ankara after those rulings,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

The AKP government currently criticizes Washington for supporting the PYD and the People’s Protection Units (YPG) within the scope of the anti-Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) coalition, as Ankara regards the Syrian forces as an affiliate of outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Kılıçdaroğlu accused President Erdoğan of also “abetting a terrorist organization” for inviting Muslim in a meeting in Ankara with officials from the Foreign Ministry and the National Intelligence Organization (MİT).

“You [Erdoğan] are aiding and abetting terrorist organizations. Why aren’t you filing a complaint about me saying this?” he said, criticizing the president for repeatedly suing him for his comments.

Kılıçdaroğlu instructed CHP officials to file a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, accusing the ruling party of “aiding and abetting terror.”

“You should make your application on Tuesday,” he told CHP deputy Mahmut Tanal, a lawyer by profession. “I will submit the rulings of the local court and the supreme court. Whoever invited Muslim here after those ruling was collaborating with a terrorist organization,” he added.