Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu recounts the night of July 15

The 7th Chairman of the CHP, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, made significant statements on the 8th anniversary of the FETÖ coup attempt on July 15, 2016.

Speaking to Saygı Öztürk from Sözcü, Kılıçdaroğlu recounted what happened and what he experienced on the night of July 15:

“On July 15, I was traveling from Ankara to Istanbul. We were going to announce our party’s Foreign Policy Strategy Document on July 16. Former minister Hayati Yazıcı was on the plane. The plane landed, and news of a ‘coup attempt, military intervention’ had already hit mobile phones. I said, ‘Such a thing cannot be,’ and I said right then that we must oppose it. When I got off the plane, they called. They said they were going to the TBMM (Grand National Assembly of Turkey). I gave instructions to our friends in that direction, saying, ‘By all means, go to Parliament, let us protect democracy.’ They went to Parliament, but when we landed at the airport, there was great panic. No one knew who was where. After a while, the head of security went outside to observe the situation. Our Bakırköy Mayor Bülent Kerimoğlu had also come to meet us. He said, ‘Sir, the hotels are closed, we cannot go outside, let’s go to our place.’ Upon this, we went to Bülent Bey’s house. We stayed there. There really was a coup attempt. We watched on television to see ‘what the dimensions of the coup attempt are, what is happening, who is doing it’… Because it was something not fully known. Phones were not working properly; that was the situation.”

"ERDOĞAN CARRIED OUT A CIVILIAN COUP FOR THE FIRST TIME IN REPUBLICAN HISTORY”

Kılıçdaroğlu also drew attention to the issues that should be focused on regarding the coup attempt:

1- THOSE WHO PLACED FETÖ MEMBERS: Those who placed FETÖ members into all state institutions have never been held accountable for this.

2- THE POLITICAL WING WAS COVERED UP: The coup plotters certainly made their preparations for the coup, and after carrying out the coup, some work was done on who would be appointed to which position. The political wing of FETÖ never emerged. It was covered up. The political wing of FETÖ has not been uncovered to this day. There is no effort to uncover it either.

3- THE PATH TO A CIVILIAN COUP: In the fight against FETÖ, while there was social support in parliament and no one opposed this fight, extraordinary powers were granted to Erdoğan through Statutory Decrees. Thus, the path to a civilian coup was opened, and with the power in his hands, he indeed gathered the authorities of all state institutions upon himself and created a different picture of the Republic of Turkey as he wished.

4- PARLIAMENT BECAME DYSFUNCTIONAL: A Coup Investigation Commission was established in Parliament. The Chief of General Staff of the period and the Undersecretary of the MIT of the period did not come to this commission. A parliament bombed by FETÖ members cannot show the will to reveal the truth because of Erdoğan. Despite the fact that the Parliament Speaker remained so dysfunctional, that two bureaucrats did not comply with the parliament’s invitation, and that Erdoğan did not allow this compliance, nothing was done.

5- THAT REPORT MUST BE PUBLISHED: The Parliamentary Investigation Commission prepared its report. But unfortunately, this report was not published. Because there were many truths in that report. None of these truths were published. At the point we have reached, Erdoğan, using the FETÖ coup attempt as a pretext, has carried out his own desired political, that is, civilian coup, for the first time in our republican history.”

News Source: 12punto