Turkey opposition calls on government to resign
Iran Press TV
Tue Feb 25, 2014 3:8PM GMT
Turkey's main opposition party has demanded the government to quickly step down in the wake of a wiretap leak incriminating Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of corruption.
"It is unacceptable that someone who is in the middle of these dirty relations leads Turkey from now on. This government has lost all legitimacy after this hour," the Republican People's Party (CHP) spokesman Haluk Koc said on Tuesday.
"We understand now far better those extraordinary efforts of making legal arrangements to render the graft claims unquestionable. [They] want to cover up the dirt. The prime minister wants to prevent them from getting to him," he added.
The call for resignation comes after leaked phone conversations, posted on YouTube, allegedly revealed Erdogan asking his son Bilal to turn millions of euros in cash stashed at several houses into 'zero.'
Bilal at one point can be heard saying, 'There is 30 million euros ($41 million) more.'
The phone conversations, whose authenticity could not be verified, were said to date back to December 17, 2013, when massive graft raids were conducted by Turkish police.
The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has described the recordings as "mind-blowing," demanding the government's resignation.
"If those conversations are true and nothing has been added, then it will be impossible to speak about the credibility, the humanity and, worse, the morality of the person in the position of prime minister," MHP leader, Devlet Bahceli said in a written statement.
Meanwhile, Erdogan has condemned leaked recordings of him and his son as a 'vile attack' by opponents.
'What was done is a vile...and a treacherous attack against the prime minister of the Republic of Turkey. It will not go unpunished,' Erdogan told his ruling party lawmakers in parliament on Tuesday.
MP/PR/SS
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