CHP's Tanrıkulu Accuses Gov't Of Rekindling Deep State

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Sezgin Tanrıkulu has said, referring to the growing number of suspicious murders, particularly in the country's Southeast, that the deep state in Turkey has been rekindled under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government.

The deep state is known for its unlawful practices in the 1990s, a period when thousands of people were murdered and the perpetrators never identified.

A series of killings that started with the recent Kobani protests in which more than 30 people were killed has gained momentum with a new wave of unsolved murders in Turkey's Southeast, a region known for assassinations allegedly by agents of the deep state during the 1990s.

Within just the last two weeks, around 10 people were murdered in various eastern and southeastern provinces of the country while a journalist working for Iranian media was killed in a highly suspicious car accident the day after she complained that the Turkish government had accused her of being an agent collecting intelligence for a foreign country.

Speaking on a program broadcast by the Cihan TV network on Thursday, Tanrıkulu said the deep state in Turkey had never been finished off, adding: “Let me say it very openly that this government has rekindled the deep state. A newspaper deliveryman was killed in Adana, a journalist died in a suspicious car crash in Suruç, our former mayor and his son were killed, a burnt body was found in a vehicle in Kızıltepe, people were lynched in Diyarbakır and killed. A person who was a member of [the Kurdish Sunni Islamist party] Hüda-Par was shot to death in Karlıova. … Turkey has been pulled into a new wave of conflicts and it is because of this government,” he said.

The CHP deputy complained that intelligence units in the country have been obstructed from doing their work and made to work for the government's interests.

“No unit was left in Turkey to maintain security, intelligence. They [the government] only have intelligence as to what the opposition is doing. Other than this, no intelligence is gathered to prevent killings. They [the government] concentrated all their intelligence-gathering efforts to protect their future and prevent their involvement in bribery, corruption, illegitimate revenue generation and fraud from being discovered,” Tanrıkulu said.

Senior members of the government are allegedly involved in corruption and bribery as revealed by an investigation which was made public on Dec. 17 of last year.

Emrullah Bayrak (Cihan/Today's Zaman)