Ümit Dikbayır: Money was requested from MPs

İYİ Party Sakarya MP Ümit Dikbayır, who is facing expulsion from his party, answered questions during a live broadcast on TV100.

RUMORS AND ALLEGATIONS

It was alleged that Ümit Dikbayır had investigated the bank accounts of İYİ Party Chair Meral Akşener's family members, as well as those of her chief of staff and her spouse; that he had mediated in securing tenders or jobs for himself, his family, and third parties from the Ankara and Istanbul metropolitan municipalities; and that there was money missing from the party treasury.

Stating that the financial situation of the İYİ Party was discussed at the General Administrative Board (GİK) meeting after the election, Ümit Dikbayır said, "Some GİK members and some individuals from Istanbul claimed that parliamentary seats were being sold for money. At that meeting, I said, 'There is no need for gossip. If one of the people you are talking about says, "I gave 100 TL to Ümit Dikbayır or I made a donation to the İYİ Party," I will resign from parliament.' These rumors actually ended there. These were empty discussions,' he said.

"WORKING WITH ME HAS BECOME DIFFICULT"

Stating that he resigned from the GİK membership due to an error in the women's quota, Dikbayır continued as follows:

"Then the congress process arrived. Because you are so close to the party leader, you have to do certain things. Sometimes you have to be a buffer. Sometimes you take the blame for bad things and attribute the good things to the leader. I have always done this. During this congress process, I noticed something. I had come in second in the previous congress process. Why did I get so few votes in this congress? Yes, it is the discretion of the delegates, but I saw an effort there. After the congress, we saw that there was a mistake in the women's quota. The Chair called me and said, 'Someone needs to resign.' I said, 'I will do it.' I had done this in the first congress as well; there was a mistake there, and I resigned from the GİK membership. After the holiday, I went to the Chair's house. I said, 'I want to distance myself from the headquarters, please allow me.' She said, 'Okay,' without insisting much. I understood that working with me had started to become a bit difficult. These are not problems; the Chair knows this best. She can tell me to stand aside or resign."

"I REPORTED MY COMPLAINT TO AKŞENER"

Claiming that Esma Bekar, the Chief of Staff to the İYİ Party Chair, worked to ensure he would not be elected at the İYİ Party congress, Dikbayır said:

"There can be small rivalries within politics and within the party. Koray Aydın might try to sideline me; he is a politician. Dursun Ataş might try to sideline me. But there is a friend named Sinan İnce, who is very close to Esma Bekar, involved in this effort. He worked to get me sidelined. He is the party's protocol manager. This might look like a small detail, but it is not. I told this to the Chair. I expected her to pick up the phone and remove the employee who is so involved in politics. She did not. This is a deep disappointment for me. A party employee is sidelining the person closest to the party leader. He is within a system. Even if it was not within her knowledge, I told her this, and she should have done what was necessary."

"MONEY WAS REQUESTED FROM MPS"

"Then money was requested from the MPs. This is where it started. Money was requested by writing how much each person would give next to their names. I did not answer this at first. Then Nebi Hatipoğlu, who left us, was the first to ask me, 'Does the party not have money? Why is money being requested from us?' I said, 'You don't need to ask me this. If I say something, it will be misunderstood. About 3 months ago, I handed over the party with approximately 130 million liras, and the delegates approved this.' Whether an election is won or lost, you have to set aside money for your budget. Money that will last until January 10th. I set aside money that would easily last. We finished 2022 with 65 million, and I set aside 130 million for 6 months."

"I SAID THE PARTY CANNOT BE AT MINUS 16 MILLION, AND I WAS PROVEN RIGHT"

"They said there, 'The party is at minus 16 million.' It cannot be. Why can't it be? Political parties cannot even use loans or credit cards. A party either has money or it doesn't. Tolga Akalın was the first to correctly identify this, and I thank him for that. Actually, the subsequent head of financial affairs says, 'This money will not last until the end of the year, we will have a 16 million deficit.' But because he could not explain this correctly, it was understood as if there was no money in the party treasury. Moreover, they announced the party budget the other day and said we have 27 million 387 thousand. In 50 days, the party will have money. I was proven right again. But how did they take this to the Chair? They took it in the form of, 'Ümit Dikbayır is asking for an account, saying where is the party's money?'"

"WE DON'T TALK ABOUT MONEY THIS MUCH IN OUR COMPANY"

(Upon Erdoğan Aktaş's question, "Why is money talked about so much in the İYİ Party? This is the first time I see so much money talk at a party headquarters. Why did the İYİ Party come to this?") "I agree. We don't talk about money this much in our company. I am not the one who brought these up. They said, 'Ümit Dikbayır is asking for an account, where is the party's money,' and the Chair said, 'Did I eat it?' Can such a thing be? This money is received from the Treasury every year and entrusted to the Chair, and we act as her clerks. 3 heads of financial affairs have changed since me. I did it for 4.5 years. You have to be careful with these things; there is money entrusted to you. Could the Chair do such a thing? Would I say this? There is absolutely no such thing, but these were said to sow discord between the Chair and me. Unfortunately, she was convinced. I do not understand how the Chair, who has been subjected to slanders for years, could act based on slanders. If the Chair had called me and asked, we would have explained the truth."

"ESMA BEKAR CALLED MUNICIPALITIES AND ASKED ABOUT ME"

"Later, I attended two MP dinners with the Chair. Then, in a meeting where I was not present, the Chair says, 'My accounts were investigated by an MP.' Uğur Poyraz says, 'Is this from inside or outside?' She says, 'From inside.' We couldn't suspect any of our MPs. Can there be such nonsense, such disgrace? Who would be curious about the accounts of the Chair, her spouse, and her chief of staff? And this is a crime. These rumors grew. During this process, I heard that the Chief of Staff, Esma Bekar, was calling municipalities and investigating, 'Does Ümit Dikbayır have any financial dealings with you? Did he have such a request?' I didn't say anything because I know myself. Let them investigate, let them look, let their minds be at ease, I said. Then the rumor came out that I was doing business with municipalities. I think the Chair will not give credence to these either."

"AKŞENER MADE SOME ALLUSIONS WHILE SHOUTING AT THE GROUP MEETING"

"There is a Twitter account; they say I had it opened and I managed it. There is no such thing either. This process went on and on, and the Chair made some allusions while shouting at us at a group meeting. I said, 'What is happening? Is she saying this to us?' My friends said, 'Yes, she is talking about you.' She said at the group meeting that she would break the hand of anyone doing business with municipalities. Many of my friends said she was alluding to you, but I still didn't believe it. Then she said it to some people she called from Sakarya. She said, 'If Tansu Hanım did the same thing to me, I would have died.'"

"SEDAT AKSAKALLI SAID 'WE ARE SURE YOU DID IT,' I ASKED THEM TO FILE A CRIMINAL COMPLAINT"

"Then, as I was leaving the group meeting, I said to both the lawyer and Deputy Chair Sedat Aksakallı, 'Can we talk? Let me explain my problem.' Before this, I sent a message to the Chair on WhatsApp. I said, 'I swear on my children, I did not do these things. There is something else behind this, look at that.' There was no response to the message, I was not called. I said to Sedat Aksakallı, 'I did not investigate the accounts, file a criminal complaint about this, write a petition to the bank because it will be revealed at what time and from where a login was made to an account; every bank has a data processing center. If someone did it, if there is such a thing, which it later turned out there wasn't, ask that officer who is making you do this. If I did it, I am ready for everything.' Sedat Aksakallı constantly tried to deflect from here, saying, 'Well, things point to you.' What things point to me? Let me know too. 'Information came from the state.' Who gave you information, and was it correct information? Maybe they are trying to do something wrong, did you investigate? 'No, we are sure of this,' he said. 'Then put my name in it, let me do this,' I said. They said that wouldn't work either. 'You have business with municipalities,' he said. What business would I have with municipalities?"

"FATİH AKŞENER DISTRIBUTED MONEY TO HIS OWN TEAM IN BAGS"

"The election ended. Fatih Akşener told me, 'I need to give money to the campaign team,' and I said, 'I will get approval from the Chair, let's give one salary to all employees.' I said they worked a little harder, let's give them two salaries, but that it would not be right to give money by hand, that it would cause gossip among other employees in the party and create discomfort, and I did not use this method. Then I heard that he had 7-8 İYİ Party bags in his hand, each containing 200 thousand TL, and he distributed money to his own team."

News Source: 12punto