Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Bülent Tezcan said on Wednesday that a newly established intelligence organization under the Turkish Presidency is providing evidence for court cases of opponents of the country’s autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Speaking at a press conference in Ankara on Wednesday, Tezcan presented a document proving that an institution named the “Presidency National Security” has provided evidence to a prosecutor’s office in a case against the Gülen movement, which Turkish authorities accuse of plotting a controversial coup last year.
Underlining that Turkey is quickly turning into a one-man regime, Tezcan said, “These kinds of intelligence organizations were established by dictators such as Hitler, Mussolini, Pinochet, Saddam and Qaddafi.”
Tezcan also added that people in Erdoğan’s circle who keep saying that “we are taking Turkey into a new system” are establishing a state within the state.
A Turkish referendum held on April 16 of this year expanded the powers of President Erdoğan and paved the way for a switch from a parliamentary system to a presidential system of governance in Turkey.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s General Directorate of Security (EGM) responded to Tezcan in a statement, saying that “Presidency National Security” is an abbreviation for the Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime (KOM) department’s branch that fights crimes threatening national security. The statement also said “Presidency” represents the KOM department of the EGM.
It also underlined that the EGM would have given detailed information to Tezcan if he asked before he talked about it at a press conference. (turkishminute.com)