Another AK Party deputy, Muhammed Çetin, resigns in protest


Date posted: January 31, 2014

 

İSTANBUL

Another deputy from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Muhammed Çetin, has resigned from his party on Friday in protest of the graft scandal that has implicated the sons of three ministers and businessmen close to the government as well as the chief of a state bank.

Çetin was referred to the party’s disciplinary committee On Jan. 16 for expulsion after he made a joke about shoebox in allusion to Halkbank Manager’s stashing 4,5 millions of dollars at shoeboxes.

Çetin reportedly asked AK Party deputies Volkan Bozkır and Ali Aşlık about their shoebox numbers. His joke prompted other deputies to tell the incident to the party administration, which outraged with the joke and referred Çetin to the disciplinary committee with request of expulsion.

The incident comes against backdrop of increasing draconian measures by the ruling AK Party to stifle any opposition and critical voice within the party amid mounting intra-party dissent.

The possible expulsion also refers to a deep sense of mistrust and insecurity within the party over deputies’ loyalties as upcoming legal amendments to restructure the judicial bodies require strong solidarity in parliamentary voting sessions.

The AK Party has been shaken by resignations following a corruption probe that has rocked Turkey’s political and business elite since it became public last month.

On the last day of 2013, the party’s Burdur deputy, Hasan Hami Yıldırım, resigned in protest of the government’s response to the graft scandal. With Yıldırım’s resignation, the number of AK Party seats in Parliament dropped to 320 and the number of independent lawmakers rose to 12.

Yıldırım slammed what he called a campaign of “insults” and “defamation” against Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen and the Hizmet movement, criticizing the government’s description of Hizmet as a “gang.”

Three deputies — Erdal Kalkan, Ertuğrul Günay and Haluk Özdalga — also left the party before Yıldırım’s resignation, continuing a string of resignations that started in November, bringing the total number of deputies who have resigned to seven.

 

Source: Todays Zaman , January 31, 2014


Related News

Conspiratorial minds, authoritarian politics

The conspiracy theories that were once the propaganda tools of the enemies of the AKP and have now become the propaganda tools of the AKP itself.

Three ministers resign as one urges PM to step down amid corruption probe

Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar, in a harsh statement, claimed that he had been pressured to submit his own resignation to save the prestige of the government, adding that the prime minister should also quit as most of the amendments on construction plans mentioned in the corruption investigation were made on Erdoğan’s orders.

Turkish family detained in Qatar as Erdogan steps up crackdown on Gulenists abroad

Qatari police detained five members of a Turkish family who are linked to the faith-based Gülen movement while the family was on their way to South Africa, the yenihamle.com news website reported on Monday.

Can resurrecting the caliphate solve Muslims’ problems?

The recent terrorist attacks in Paris once more brought up the issue of how homegrown terrorism is shaping up to be one of the most striking elements of today’s terror threat, as former US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano predicted in 2011.

Our new neighbor [Al-Qaeda] poses a great risk for Turkey

Because some European countries failed to share intelligence with Turkey on al-Qaeda militants moving through Turkey to Syria — a dynamic that turned Syria into an Afghanistan and Turkey into a Pakistan — a fairly negative outlook on Turkey emerged. Al-Qaeda and similar organizations were able to step up their presence and activity in Syria by using the Turkey-Syria border, which has become uncontrollable in recent years.

No return from democracy, Zaman editor Dumanlı says under detention

Ekrem Dumanlı, the editor-in-chief of Turkey’s most circulated paper, the Zaman daily, emphasized his strong belief in democracy on the third day of his detention in an unprecedented government-backed police crackdown.

Latest News

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

University refuses admission to woman jailed over Gülen links

In Case You Missed It

17 Nigerian-Turkish schools caught in Ankara coup crossfire

Hizmet school ready to pioneer education in Kurdish

Turkish finance minister declines to comment on ‘color lists’

Top court annuls controversial law on prep school closure

Turkish PM Erdoğan’s rhetoric and reality

Doctors Worldwide Turkey, Kimse Yok Mu set to help Gazans

Ankara’s soft-power dilemma

Copyright 2024 Hizmet News