Opposition Leader Claims Group Within Turkish Gov’T Plotting To Shut Chp Down

- Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has claimed there is a plot to close down his party, while stressing that Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is unaware of the plot that has been hatched by a group within Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT).

“We know very well that preparations are underway for that. The claim is true,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, when reminded of claims floated by “Fuat Avni,” the alias of a controversial whistleblower who suggested that the CHP would be closed down.

“We know that preparations are underway, and we know who are making these preparations. We know that a book has been published and this book will be put on the market. We are waiting. We will pay back hold this to account before the judiciary,” he added in an interview with private broadcaster CNN Türk late on March 4.

A group close to the government is involved in this plot, the CHP leader claimed.

“This is being done bypassing Davutoğlu. We know all of these details. From here, I’m calling on the MİT. As its name implies, it is the ‘National Intelligence Organization.’ It has all kinds of information about the country’s intelligence, it may keep individuals under surveillance, for example, but it must be ‘national.’ If it assumes a policy adjusted to the government, then its title would not be ‘national’ but rather ‘gestapo,’” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

During the same interview, the CHP leader was reminded of news reports printed in pro-government newspapers last month, which claimed that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s daughter Sümeyye was being targeted by the movement of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen and also the CHP. The reports stated that the Gülen movement and the CHP have together hired a hit man to assassinate Sümeyye Erdoğan.

“I have neither heard such crazy talk, nor I have encountered such an accusation in my life. This is a plot. There is a group within the MİT that is directly serving the government. If they continue to do so, we will announce their names,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.