The Constitutional Court will easily overturn the verdict in the Kobani case, as it was dictated by government rather than based on legal grounds, said Turkey’s main opposition leader Özgür Özel during his party’s parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday.
Özel, leader of Republican People’s Party (CHP), strongly condemned the recent verdicts in the Kobani case for being politically motivated decisions influenced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ultra-nationalist ally Devlet Bahçeli. “A legal decision has not been made here; rather, politicians dictated the Kobani indictment. The Constitutional Court will certainly overturn these decisions,” Özel stated.
Addressing his party’s parliamentary group, Özel responded to criticisms from President Erdoğan and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Bahçeli regarding his evaluation of the Kobani case. He addressed four questions directed at him by Bahçeli, which he attributed to known controversial insiders within the MHP. “Bahçeli posed four questions to me, clearly penned by certain infamous agitators. It is they who should be answering questions,” Özel asserted.
He implied that the questions were intended to deflect from the real issues at hand, including the controversy surrounding the assassination of Sinan Ateş, a former chairman-general of the MHP’s youth wing, the Grey Wolves, who was murdered under suspicious circumstances.
Özel also addressed the ruling coalition’s proposed “foreign influencer” legislation, which aims to prevent civil societies and certain media organisations from receiving international funding, and he cautioned that pushing forward with such laws would mark the coalition’s place in the “dark pages of world political history”. As this legislation, aimed at restricting foreign aid to opposition groups, is being prepared, exiled journalist Metin Cihan has revealed that a number of Turkish organisations closely linked to President Erdoğan and known for their poitical lobbying, have been receiving substantial EU funds.
Furthermore, Özel expressed solidarity with the ‘Saturday Mothers‘, who have been protesting against forced disappearances. He promised to support their 1000th week of protests, urging the government to remove the “shameful” police barriers surrounding their gatherings and to bring an end the national disgrace associated with their plight. “We met with the Saturday Mothers. The Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya promised to schedule a meeting. We want to witness them exercising their constitutional rights on the 1000th week of [their] protest.” Özel declared.
