Whistleblower Claims Erdoğan Instigating Civil War To Declare One-Man Rule

Government whistleblower Fuat Avni has claimed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has full knowledge of the destruction and chaos in the southeastern provinces and wants the crisis there to escalate in order to justify a switch to a one-man presidential system.

Fuat Avni, who frequently exposes the illegal activities of the government and has been found to be correct in his predictions, tweeted on Wednesday night that Erdoğan plans to suspend the parliamentary regime in Turkey via a civil war and replace it with an executive-style presidential system.

He wrote that Efkan Ala, the former interior minister and current aide to Erdoğan, is trying to escalate the violence in the Southeast on Erdoğan's orders.

“Efkan is fueling a civil war with the orders he is giving to his men in the area [Southeast],” Avni wrote, claiming that Ala had said, “As many police officers should die as possible; we shouldn't risk [the deaths of] soldiers just yet.”

He also states that two of the highest-ranking Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) members have been in direct contact with National Intelligence Organization (MİT) head Hakan Fidan and that the clashes were being planned together.

PKK-related terrorist attacks in the Southeast have grown over the past month after a suicide bomber carried out an attack in Suruç, a town in Şanlıurfa province, on July 20, killing 34 activists and injuring more than 100 people. The PKK blames the state for failing to stop the attacks claimed to have been undertaken by a member of the radical terrorist group the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

On July 22, the PKK killed two police officers in retaliation for the Suruç terrorist attack, which resulted in the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) initiating air strikes against PKK bases in neighboring Iraq.

Erdoğan strongly advocates a presidential system that will bestow executive powers to the president yet allow him to remain unaccountable to Parliament, in effect eradicating the separation of powers.

Erdoğan hinted at the switch to a presidential system during a speech to members of civil society organizations last week when he said: "You can either accept it or not. Turkey's governmental system has been de facto changed in this regard. What should be done now is to finalize the legal framework of this de facto situation with a new constitution.”

Many believe the chaos in the Southeast is being escalated on Erdoğan's command to ensure that the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) falls below the election threshold in a possible snap election in the fall.

The HDP's exclusion from Parliament would mean the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), of which Erdoğan is a founding member, would be able to once again form a single-party government after losing its 13-year grip on power in the June general election.

Fuat Avni, who claims to be in Erdoğan's inner circle, tweeted that Erdoğan gets “delighted” with the death reports of civilians delivered to the presidential palace.

He also claims Erdoğan is especially pleased with the declarations of self-governance made by so-called people's assemblies in the southeastern districts of Silopi, Cizre and Nusaybin, as well as in the province of Şırnak.

The calls for self-governance came on Aug. 10, following clashes between terrorist PKK supporters and the police in Silopi that killed four people, including a police officer.

The district of Yüksekova in the southeastern province of Hakkari and the Varto and Bulanık districts of Muş followed suit soon thereafter.

Fuat Avni purports that the real clashes will begin after the municipalities of Diyarbakır and Van declare self-governance.

Finally, Fuat Avni claims that Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan will lead the AK Party in a possible snap election in the fall.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)