From Rezan Epözdemir to Şamil Tayyar... 'Now you will be held accountable'

AKP member Şamil Tayyar recently claimed on the Medya Kritik program on TGRT Haber that "Rezan Epözdemir took on Nihat Özçelik's power of attorney for 5 million dollars. He divided the work with a law firm. They started appearing on Habertürk and making comments to exonerate Özçelik. They took judges on vacation abroad."

Lawyer Rezan Epözdemir, who is currently imprisoned on charges of 'bribery', responded to Tayyar's allegations in a statement published on his social media account.

Refuting Tayyar's claim, Epözdemir said, "While we were condemning the coup plotters on NTV right after the treacherous coup attempt in a broadcast also attended by Mahmut Övür... You were at that time applauding until your palms were sore at Taraf, which was a FETÖ media outlet, and glorifying the frame-up cases of the FETÖ traitors with your pen in your columns."

'I WILL NO LONGER ADDRESS YOU AS "YOU" (FORMAL)'

Epözdemir included the following statements in his message:

"Now let's come to Şamil Tayyar; I will no longer address you as 'siz' (formal 'you'), because you do not deserve respect, and I will respond based on the principle of reciprocity. Actually, I was not going to respond to you, Şamil Tayyar, but you made my wife, my 3 children, and my seriously ill mother and family cry. My family is my red line. I am responding to you.

1) You were saying that Rezan Epözdemir gets things done even from prison, and I said I would quit the profession if you could prove this. There is no sound or word. Now I am going one step further; if any file came to me while I was in prison and I directed it to anyone, I am the most dishonorable and immoral person in the world, but if the opposite is true, the person who claims this and does not prove it is dishonorable, immoral, and a slanderer. I have applied for legal remedies regarding this allegation of yours, and I am waiting for you to prove it. Of course, we are imprisoned, in a 10-square-meter single cell, and you have found the field empty and are just talking, Şamil!

2) I have never been Nihat Özçelik's lawyer in my life. His lawyer came to me about 1.5 years ago and made an offer, but I did not accept it. In fact, I sadly ended my working relationship with and terminated the employment contract of Attorney Tahsin Bilginer, who had been with me since his internship, whom I trained, and who was previously the head of my criminal law department, because he poached and deceived him while he was working with me. This situation is documented by Social Security Institution (SGK) records. I am also very angry and furious at him for poaching such a successful and qualified criminal lawyer, whom I put so much effort into, as his lawyer. I had Attorney Tahsin Bilginer called during my detention process because he had been attending the hearings of the Supreme Court file that has been ongoing for 4.5 years and was very familiar with the file, and I included him in our 3-person lawyer team. Here, too, I clearly told him this: if he submits a power of attorney for that file and follows it, we will part ways; otherwise, he is working as my lawyer in the file I am being tried in. He does not work in my office; he has his own office. He is one of my lawyers in the file I am being tried in."

RESPONSE TO 'NİHAT ÖZÇELİK' ALLEGATION

You said that I took Nihat Özçelik's power of attorney for 5 million USD. Someone named Burak Bekiroğlu, who has a personal grudge against me and has made it a habit to slander people after 12 midnight, and whose reliability and mental faculties are questionable, told you this. This allegation is completely fictional, a product of imagination, and absurd... May God give you wisdom and reason. If this allegation is true, if I took Nihat Özçelik's power of attorney for 5 million USD and if Nihat Özçelik's name even came out of my mouth once on Habertürk or anywhere else, I am dishonorable, immoral, and disgraceful. Otherwise, the person who does not prove this is dishonorable, immoral, and disgraceful. I will file a lawsuit against you regarding this matter as well.

'WE WILL SETTLE ACCOUNTS BEFORE THE JUDICIARY'

I know you are doing this to target me through Nihat Özçelik, as you have done similar things in the past, and to continue the unfair and unlawful arrest decision, but I will use my freedom to seek rights as a requirement of the rule of law, and we will settle accounts before the judiciary.

Finally; instead of letting yourself be used as a tool for the personal grudges and interests of the slanderer named Burak Bekiroğlu; call the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, which you meet with at every opportunity, and ask this allegation of yours to the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office: did I reject the offer or am I angry? The Chief Public Prosecutor's Office must have information about this; if they confirm you, I will apologize to you, but if I rejected the offer and am angry because he took my lawyer, I hope you will show this virtue and no longer let yourself be used by the slanderer Burak Bekiroğlu and apologize.

3) I consider it beneath me to respond to your statements that target my family integrity and imply that I cheated on my wife. I will also apply for legal remedies regarding this matter; the person who does not prove it is a coward, I am waiting. These tabloid urges and sensational allegations must have been inherited by you from Helin Avşar, but do not confuse me with yourself, Şamil Tayyar.

4) Actually, as a lawyer, I do not want to hit below the belt at all, and I do not find it ethical. This matter was closed for me, but I have a Burak Bekiroğlu in front of me who adopts unethical methods and uses you with his immoral slanders. If he writes one more word about me from tonight onwards—who is usually docile during the day with a motivation we are all familiar with, but attacks dozens of people at night—I will send the documents of how M.A., the deputy general manager of a bank who was recently detained for usury and released under judicial control, and who organizes and finances these troll attacks, established a company in his wife's name, how he sold cosmetic products in an immoral way to dozens of hotels that are customers and to which he gave loans, and how he bought apartments for himself and his relatives in real estate projects where he provided project financing. I hope you will make an assessment regarding this in the name of law, justice, and fairness. I have closed this book, I am not interested in these topics at all, and it does not concern me; I cannot consider someone else's unhappiness as happiness. This matter is closed for me, but since Burak Bekiroğlu is slandering and defaming me through my professional activities, I will also reveal this cosmetic company profiteering with real information and documents. I hope your client warns you for the last time and you mind your own business. Because that is what I am doing. Otherwise, I will use my right to legitimate self-defense and publish these in all detail.

'YOU WERE AT TARAF AT THAT TIME...'

5) Finally, Şamil Tayyar, we have become a society with a very short memory. You are one of the last people in this country to talk about law, justice, and fairness. Your report card and reputation on this subject are not good at all. While we were condemning the coup plotters on NTV right after the treacherous coup attempt in a broadcast also attended by Mahmut Övür, while we were becoming targets at the Ankara 4th High Criminal Court by acting as victim attorneys in the FETÖ frame-up files, we saw that FETÖ wanted to design the country and politics with frame-up files after taking over the HSK in 2010, and we placed an ad in the newspaper saying "No" with 200 lawyers. (In those days, it took a lot of guts to place that ad.) You were at that time applauding until your palms were sore at Taraf, which was a FETÖ media outlet, and glorifying the frame-up cases of the FETÖ traitors with your pen in your columns. If you want, I can give a few examples here. Such being the case; on the anniversary of that unfortunate day when Ali Tatar took his own life, think about those days and what you wrote, repent, because you are the last person in this country to talk about law, justice, and fairness. You are a politician, I am a lawyer, do not mess with me, or if you want, mess with me, but from now on, for my wife and children—may "God spare all our children"—I will use my right to legitimate self-defense in the same way and respond based on the principle of reciprocity."