Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has filed a lawsuit against the leader of the main opposition party over “baseless” comments linking him to the US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed for the failed coup of 2016.<\/p>\n
Huseyin Aydin, a lawyer for Erdogan, said on Thursday that the president was seeking 250,000 lira ($63,000) in damages from the head of the People’s Republican Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu.<\/p>\n
“We have filed a lawsuit because of Kilicdaroglu’s unfair and baseless accusations directed towards our president,” Aydin said on Twitter. <\/p>\n
This comes after Kilicdaroglu said in a speech to members of his party in Ankara this week that Erdogan had been closer to Gulen than any other Turkish politician.<\/p>\n
“The number one political arm of Gulenist network, the number one defendant, is the person who occupies the presidency,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Back in April last year, Kilicdaroglu accused the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of having prior knowledge of the failed 2016 putsch, saying Ankara carried out a \u201ccontrolled\u201d coup in an attempt to exploit its outcomes.<\/p>\n
Gulen was once a close ally of Erdogan’s government, but they fell out in recent years.<\/p>\n
In mid-July 2016, a faction of the Turkish military declared that it had seized control of the country and the government of Erdogan was no more in charge. The attempt was, however, suppressed a few hours later.<\/p>\n
Ankara has since accused Gulen, 76, of having orchestrated the failed coup. The opposition figure is also accused of being behind a long-running campaign to topple the government via infiltrating the country\u2019s institutions, particularly the army, police and the judiciary. <\/p>\n
The cleric has since strongly rejected any involvement in the coup attempt against Erdogan. However, Ankara labeled his transnational religious and social movement as the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).<\/p>\n
Turkey, which remains in a state of emergency since the coup, has been engaged in suppressing the media and opposition groups suspected to have played a role in the failed coup.<\/p>\n
Thousands of people have been detained on charges of links to Gulen’s movement in the security crackdown that followed the attempt to overthrow Erdogan.<\/p>\n
The UN human rights office said earlier this month that Turkey had detained 160,000 people and dismissed nearly the same number of civil servants since July 2016.<\/p>\n
Gulen has already called on Ankara to end its \u201cwitch hunt\u201d of his followers, a move he says is aimed at \u201cweeding out anyone it deems disloyal to President Erdogan and his regime.\u201d<\/p>\n
The international community and rights groups have been highly critical of the Turkish president over the massive dismissals and the crackdown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has filed a lawsuit against the leader of the main opposition party over “baseless” comments linking him to the US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed for the failed coup of 2016. Huseyin Aydin, a lawyer for Erdogan, said on Thursday that the president was seeking 250,000 lira ($63,000) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,6],"tags":[271,789,791,790,237,526,192,496],"yoast_head":"\n