Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli was the first politician aligned with the government to comment on the detention of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) mayor for Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoğlu.
In a written statement hours after Imamoğlu’s detention on Wednesday, Bahçeli said the judiciary should be respected for legal proceedings against the mayor and advised “patience and common sense” to supporters of the mayor. “It should be our joint responsibility to respect any verdict. But defaming a judiciary measure as a coup, to prepare taking people to the streets (for riots) is a sign of political corruption lacking in sanity and morals,” Bahçeli said. He was referring to earlier statements by CHP Chair Özgür Özel, who claimed Imamoğlu’s detention on charges of corruption and terror links was “a coup to nation’s will.”
Bahçeli underlined that nobody was privileged before the laws and the Turkish judiciary was independent and unbiased. “Ignoring crimes, actions that require legal intervention, investigation or slowing down procedures to that extent would certainly hurt public conscience and harm trust in the judiciary,” Bahçeli said.
“Opposing laws or inviting discussion upon the legality of verdicts, procedures carried out by the judiciary is an invitation to disorder and violence. Nobody is untouchable and everyone should be held accountable for what they’ve done wrong,” he said.
