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CHP Leader Deniz Baykal Slammed PM, AKP Government
 CHP leader Deniz Baykal strongly criticized the government during his address at Turkish parliament’s special session yesterday on the occasion of National Sovereignty Day. He said, “There are attempts to put Turkey's judiciary under pressure. Worse yet is that some inner and outer powers are encouraging these trends. No international organization will be able to influence the free conscience of Turkish judges”. The CHP and AKP exchanged bitter words over a Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) declaration on the closure case against the AKP. The CHP accused the AKP members of PACE of seeking foreign alliances against the Turkish judiciary. Baykal also accused the government of its undemocratic actions and said, “Democracies have no place for prime ministers that hide behind immunities, for those who issue pardons for their crimes by changing the laws, for those that use state banks to buy partisan media, and for governments that entrust the public education in the hands of people calling for jihad in schools”. Baykal said, such a government would inevitably cause the questioning of its legitimacy. Baykal said that the sale of the Turkey’s second largest media group stinks. He accused PM Erdogan of creating an AKP media by manipulating the system. He said that seven other groups interested in the sale of Sabah-ATV withdrew their bids after being contacted by the PM; and the only group that bid and won was the one led by the PM’s son-in-law. Baykal questioned how and under what terms the two state-owned banks financed the deal. About Calik Group’s new Qatari partner, Baykal said, “We now understand the PM’s special interest in Qatar”, and claimed that it was the PM’s personal efforts that helped create the partnership. In the last five months Qatar was visited multiple times, by PM Erdogan, President Gul and eight other AKP Ministers. Source: Hurriyet, Turkish Daily News, April 24, 2008
Posted at: 2008-04-24
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