Remarks over political prisoners prompt death threats for Turkey’s opposition leaders

The number of death threats directed against
opposition figures in Turkey has grown following remarks made by opposition
politicians condemning the imprisonment of high-profile political figures in
the country.
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu,
the head of the main opposition People’s Republican Party (CHP), has received a
series of severe threats for criticising the imprisonment of Selahattin Demirtaş,
leader of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and others.
On Nov. 17, Kılıçdaroğu
lambasted Turkey’s
ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for “releasing mafia leader and drug
smugglers” while imprisoning “prisoners of conscience.”
Not long after this speech, he was threatened by
infamous mobster Alaattin Çakıcı, who accused him of treason for defending
Demirtaş.
In an obscenity laced hand-written letter, Çakıcı warned the CHP leader to “be sensible.”
Çakıcı was arrested in 2004 on numerous charges
including murder, but he was released in April as part of an amnesty bill to
reduce prison populations during COVID-19. His release was long sought by the
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, whose party considers
Çakıcı a hero for targeting members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), PKK
supporter Kurdish businessmen and activists in extrajudicial killings.
Since Çakıcı’s threat against Kılıçdaroğlu,
other Turkish opposition figures have come under fire in often violent or
deeply partisan attacks from pro-AKP media.
Melih Gökçek, a former AKP mayor of Ankara for over
two decades until 2018, took to Twitter over the weekend and shared a video
with members of CHP as well as other opposition parties. In the video, these
MPs were taking critical positions on Turkish foreign policy decisions
including the purchase of the S-400 Russian missile system.
Attached to the video, Gökçek wrote in caps lock
“HERE IS THE REAL FACE OF THE OPPOSITION!”
Columnist with Türkiye newspaper Fuat Uğur
penned an article in on Saturday, in which he describes how pro-government
media has spoken about plots to kill Kılıçdaroğlu.
He wrote of one particular scenario in which the CHP leader could be harmed.
“One of the FETO pro-crypto kamikazes will point the
trigger at Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu this time,
just like the Karlov assassination,’’ Uğur
wrote.
“However, after the unsolved assassination, the
person to be accused will be Alaattin Çakıcı, who is a relative of Devlet
Bahçeli, the leader of the MHP, which is the partner of the ruling People's
Alliance. In other words, a perception will be created as if he was
assassinated by power," he said, referencing the killer of Russian
ambassador Andrey Karlov in 2016. The assailant was accused of being a Gülenist
by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government after the act.
These threats in part stem from an overall
partisanship that has increased in recent months amidst economic and foreign
policy challenges. In early November, Erdoğan
has promised to initiate economic and judicial reforms to resuscitate an anemic
lira. He has also opened the door to warming relations with both the European
Union as well as the United States.
After Kılıçdaroğlu’s remarks on Demirtaş,
the Ankara’s
public prosecutor’s office announced that it prepared a summary of proceedings
that would lead to the removal of his parliamentary immunity so he can be tried
on charges of “praising an offense and an offender.” The impetus was allegedly
a complaint filed by the MHP against the CHP leader.
Bahçeli accused Kılıçdaroğlu
of being sympathetic to the PKK and defended Çakıcı as an “ülkücü” or a member of the Grey Wolves, a
Turkish ultranationalist organisation with ties to the MHP. He also referred to
the accused mobster as his “comrade”.
“Kılıçdaroğlu
cannot change the agenda that works against him…” Bahçeli tweeted on November 18. “Cooperation with the
PKK will certainly bear the democratic cost of their dialogue with FETO.”
FETO is Ankara’s abbreviation for the Fethullah Gulen
Terrorist Organisation, who Ankara accuses of being a terrorist group.
Supporters of Fethullah Gulen, an early ally of Erdogan living in exile, are
accused of orchestrating the failed July 2016 coup attempt against him.
CHP Deputy Leader Engin Özkoç slammed MHP as acting
as a “hitman” for Erdogan and the AKP by pushing for charges against Kılıçdaroğlu.
“The MHP has to return to the realities of the
country and should seek solutions to the problems of the people. Those who
attempt to silence the opposition should never forget that neither our Chairman
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu nor our lawmakers
will give up on telling the truths and protecting people’s interests,” Özkoç
said.
According to Özkoç, stripping Kılıçdaroğlu
of his immunity so he could be prosecuted for political statements would be a
first in the history of the Turkish republic. Any decision to lift immunity of
an MP would be made by the Grand National Assembly’s speaker, whose seat is
currently filled by AKP member Mustafa Şentop.
The motion to lift Kılıçdaroğlu’s immunity has been
sent to the Parliamentary Speaker’s office, but would need to be voted on
to go into effect. The vote won’t happen until lawmakers decide to include it
in the agenda.
As of August, 1,020 motions on 175 deputies are
waiting at the parliamentary justice commission. The majority are on the two
largest opposition blocs, with 54 deputies from the pro-Kurdish left-wing
opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) facing 774 motions and 95 deputies
from the centre-left CHP facing 225.
Earlier in June, three opposition deputies lost
their parliamentary statuses when the general assembly moved to vote on the
motions on them. In November 2017, 12 deputies from the HDP were detained and
nine of them - including Demirtaş
himself - were arrested after a constitutional amendment lifted all
parliamentary immunities