BTP Chairman Baş reveals: What is Erdoğan threatening Bahçeli with?

Independent Turkey Party (BTP) Chairman Hüseyin Baş said, "The Sinan Ateş file is not being examined to find the murderer of a victim, to investigate a murder, or to delve into the social capillaries of this issue. In Turkey, such files are used for political settling of scores. Politics uses these as a tool for settling scores. Therefore, we see this today; that settling of scores was perhaps a settling of scores for the sake of the election of the President of the Court of Cassation."

Baş drew attention to the fact that the withdrawal of one of the candidates, Muhsin Şentürk, President of the 3rd Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation, who is known for his closeness to the MHP, took place after the meeting between AKP Chairman and President Erdoğan and Bahçeli.

He also implied that the Sinan Ateş file is being used for political score-settling and that there were political interactions behind the candidate's withdrawal.

Baş evaluated the agenda in a statement he made on his personal social media account. Chairman Baş drew attention to the withdrawal of one of the candidates, Muhsin Şentürk, President of the 3rd Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation, in the 36th round of the election at the Court of Cassation, where the presidential election had stalled.

Stating that the person who withdrew from the candidacy is known for his closeness to the MHP, Hüseyin Baş said the following:

“Now, what is significant is this; when and how did he withdraw? The candidate who withdrew is the candidate who said, 'I do not recognize the Constitutional Court's Can Atalay decision.' It is a situation discussed in judicial circles that this candidate is a candidate close to the MHP. Mr. President and Mr. Bahçeli have a meeting, and immediately after this meeting, the current candidate withdraws from the race, and the way is cleared for the election of the President of the Court of Cassation in the 36th round.”

"HE IS SAYING 'I'LL DIG INTO THE SINAN ATEŞ FILE, WATCH OUT'"

Asking the question, “What did Erdoğan go with to ensure the candidate's withdrawal?”, Hüseyin Baş also drew attention to the Sinan Ateş assassination. Baş spoke as follows:

“An indictment has been prepared in the Sinan Ateş file. Actually, Erdoğan has been brandishing a stick under the table at certain interlocutors for a few days. While brandishing this stick, he said in a speech, ‘The state grows stronger as it distributes justice.’ This is such a sentence that an authority that destroys justice and ignores the law is governing the country, and the same authority says, ‘The state is a state that grows stronger as it distributes justice.’ Actually, he is not saying this to us, he is not saying this to the judges, he is saying it to someone else. I am saying this so that we can understand the conflicts in politics. In other words, he is threatening some people by distributing justice, saying, ‘I’ll dig into the Sinan Ateş file, watch out.’ If you ask me, that was the message, and at the end of the day, they meet with Bahçeli, and immediately after, coincidentally, the Court of Cassation candidate withdraws from the candidacy.

“THE SINAN ATEŞ FILE WILL EVOLVE ELSEWHERE”

The Sinan Ateş file is not being examined to find the murderer of a victim, to investigate a murder, or to delve into the social capillaries of this issue. In Turkey, such files are used for political settling of scores. Politics uses these as a tool for settling scores. Therefore, we see this today; that settling of scores was perhaps a settling of scores for the sake of the election of the President of the Court of Cassation. Now, if what was wanted has been obtained—and it seems that what was wanted will have been largely achieved here—what will happen? The course of that file will have been directed elsewhere once again.

Touching upon the 9th judicial package, which is expected to come to the agenda of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) in a short time, Hüseyin Baş noted the following:

A crime called 'influence agency' is being added to the judicial package. What is influence agency? It is said that if you write something on social media—it is not necessary to be someone's agent or to have a relationship with someone—if you have spoken, we can see you as an influence agent and take action against you. This is in the judicial package. Where is the softening in this, where is the politics in this, where is the law in this? This is actually the immediate terrorization of anyone the administrators set their sights on with an accusation of being an agent. Politics has already been based on this for 20 years. Now, regarding this influence agency, people who are actually acting as agents for those places can put you in the status of an agent just because they don't like you, by calling anyone they want, ‘This is America's agent, England's agent, Germany's agent.’ Of course, this is not something that can be accepted in legal, political, social, or humanitarian terms. When such a government gets such power in its hands, we more or less guess how it will use this stick. Therefore, there is actually no softening or anything. It is absurd for us as voters to have this reflex regarding the story of softening in politics; that politics is softening and we will be comfortable. You'll be waiting a long time, my dear, that's not going to happen! What they call softening is softening towards the outside, not softening towards the citizen. This softening is a softening so that they can make their give-and-take deals more easily among themselves. Otherwise, nothing will happen regarding you. You will still be afraid of being arrested when you tweet, you will still have the anxiety that the police might show up at your door when you speak, you will still be in a situation where anything can happen to you at any moment when you criticize something; in other words, nothing will change for us, for the citizen.