Striking remarks from Ahmet Şık regarding Gökhan Zan: 'Unfortunately, it belongs to Gökhan...'

Participating in a SÖZCÜ TV broadcast, TİP MP Ahmet Şık discussed the details of the meeting he held regarding the audio recordings involving Gökhan Zan, which were alleged to be the result of 'blackmail'.

"I LIKED HIM"

"We are not directly involved, but we have a share in the development of this process. That is why I sincerely apologize to the people of Hatay on behalf of myself and my party," said Ahmet Şık, with the following highlights from his statements:

We announced his candidacy on February 12. I met him on February 10. To be honest, I liked him...

On March 7, our Antakya candidate Ecevit Alkan asked me, 'Are you aware that Gökhan might be in trouble?' He showed me a photo of a tweet by Turgay Kocakaya. I asked Gökhan the same day. He said, 'He promised me sponsorship for the election campaign. We had some conversations about that. But he manipulated the conversations, edited them, and produced a fake recording via deep fake. He is blackmailing me.'

"I BELIEVED HIM"

I am convinced, frankly, that money was demanded from Gökhan Zan.

During that process, Gökhan said, 'If you have even a gram of doubt about me, I can withdraw from the candidacy immediately.' I believed him. I asked him, 'Do you have any doubts about yourself?' He said, 'No.' Then I said, 'Neither do I.'

"INTERESTINGLY, HE ASKED US THIS"

We said we could file a criminal complaint for blackmail, threats, and violation of the confidentiality of communications. He accepted this, but interestingly, Gökhan Zan asked us: "When we file a criminal complaint, will these conversations and so on be discussed in court?" When we said, "Of course they will come up," he replied, "Then let's only file a criminal complaint for violation of the confidentiality of communications." We filed the criminal complaint on March 9, but he himself did not want the blackmail and threat parts included...

"I LISTENED REPEATEDLY AND UNFORTUNATELY REALIZED IT BELONGED TO GÖKHAN"

Later, intermediaries whom I thought were close to Lütfü Savaş brought me the audio recording. On the night of March 13, I listened to that recording in an environment with 5 people. I listened to it from a phone. I did not believe it belonged to Gökhan. The next day, I listened to it repeatedly with headphones. And unfortunately, I realized it belonged to Gökhan.

I shared the situation with the party. I called Gökhan to Hatay... The next day, we held a meeting with 3 party officials. He denied the recording, calling it a deep fake. I said, 'The recording is real, but it has been cut and edited'...

"SOMEONE WHO CANNOT EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY ARE FIGHTING AGAINST..."

We asked about the sports commentary issue. He said, 'Yes, I wanted that.' He says this believing that football commentary is his right. 'I burned my professional career by entering politics. This is my right. Of course, I will ask for it,' he says. He says this naively. He says it from a perspective that cannot even understand where he is doing politics or what he is fighting against. I was very surprised when I heard this...

"A 27-PAGE REPORT ARRIVED FROM A CYBER SECURITY EXPERT"

We requested a report from a forensic informatics and cyber security expert regarding the recording. A 27-page report arrived. I am reading from the conclusion section: "It has been determined that the video continues without interruption, there is continuity in the background sounds, there are no skips, and there are no unexpected changes in the speed of the voice or fluctuations in the frequency."