CHP’s Yarkadaş replies with Cumhuriyet and Akit headlines to Bozdağ’s claimed ignorance that the Gulenists were a terrorist organisation

CHP Istanbul member of parliament Barış Yarkadaş said, “Even though the AKP knew that the Gulenists, known as the Service Movement, were a terrorist organisation, they collaborated and installed them in the state.” Yarkadaş, stating that they were following the same path today, gave the example of practices in schools.
 
Harsh exchanges were once more witnessed in the budget debate taking place in the General Assembly of Parliament. The words of Deputy Prime-Minister Bekir Bozdağ, “We did not know the Gulenists were a terrorist organisation” heightened the tension. CHP Istanbul MP Barış Yarkadaş replied to Bozdağ showing headlines of the Cumhuriyet Newspaper from 2002 and Akit from 2013.
 
YOU WERE NOT TAKEN IN. YOU COLLABORATED
 
Yarkadaş, mounting the General Assembly rostrum and taking the floor, said, “The lead story in this Cumhuriyet Newspaper from 2002 in which the AKP came to power carries the headline, “The Gulenists are a terrorist organisation.” As you see in the story, the case report in this matter of Adana Republic Chief Prosecution and the State Security Court was openly available. Had Mr Bozdağ wished to know, he would have known that FETO was a terrorist organisation formation at that time.”
 
Yarkadaş continued his speech showing another newspaper cutting. The CHP MP turned the page on which Akit’s lead story from 2013 with the headline “The AK Party saved Gülen” was printed, and spoke as follows:
 
“OK, you do not believe Cumhuriyet, so what are you going to say to Akit newspaper? Look, it says, “The AK Party saved Gülen.”  It is your current Group Deputy Chair who, full of praise, speaks the words in the headline. He says, “We saved Gülen.” Who did you seemingly save? Your most beloved Service Movement, which Cumhuriyet Newspaper indicated in 2002 to be a terrorist organisation. You knew. You knowingly installed them in the state and you collaborated – you facilitated it; you did not let them infiltrate but you installed them.”
 
FETO HAS GONE AND NEW ONES HAVE COME
 
Yarkadaş, noting that the AKP is continuing the kind of relations it entered with FETO today, albeit with different religious brotherhoods and orders, commented, “You are making the same mistakes today, too,” addressing Bekir Bozdağ and Recep Akdağ sitting on the government benches.
 
Yarkadaş went on to note, “Branded as ‘cleaning out FETO,’ the Ministry of National Education is opening state schools to new brotherhoods and new orders and you are quite simply sowing the seeds of new FETOs with your own hands.”
 
TAKEN BY FORCE TO PERFORM PRAYER
 
The CHP’s Yarkadaş continued his speech as follows, showing the documents in his hand from the rostrum:
 
“Look. What is the Bahçelievler Directorate of National Education doing? It is taking pupils by force to perform prayer under a religious order’s supervision, friends - by force. The headmaster of Cağaloğlu Anatolian High School is a brotherhood member. He is currently summoning pupils to religious chats by force. This is not enough. Let us look at the document immediately below. Maltepe Directorate of National Education has also been consigned to a brotherhood. The directorate tells pupils, ‘Your teachers will come to your homes and present religious chats to you.’ These are FETO’s methods in full. FETO used to implement these practices in the past. Now, the religious brotherhoods and orders that you have installed in the state are working in just the way FETO worked and are heading along that path. Do not say again tomorrow, ‘We were taken in; we were deceived; we had no idea’.”
 
RELIGION AND FAITH FOR THE POOR, WEALTH IN ABUNDANCE FOR THE AKP
 
Yarkadaş, also noting that the AKP exploits religious faith and makes easy earnings from behind this appearance, illustrated what he meant with the example of the İ – TAXI project that was starting to be implemented in Istanbul. Yarkadaş, saying “Religion and faith for students, wealth in abundance for the AKP,” continued as follows:
 
“You have launched this project that comes as a 200 trillion earner in Istanbul. Despite 18,000 taxi drivers having objected, and despite this matter, that is İ – TAXI, currently being before the courts, what have you done? You have created funds to the tune of 200 million under the project named İ – TAXI and are transferring this to the son of the AKP’s deputy general chair responsible for local governance.”
 
Yarkadaş, recalling that AKP Istanbul MP, the AKP’s Metin Külünk, also objected to the project, said, “Mr Metin Külünk went to Istanbul and told taxi drivers, ‘I am against this project. This project should not be implemented.’ Despite this, two days later the İ – TAXI project commenced. Why? Because there are easy earnings of 200 million here.”
 
Yarkadaş, stating that a significant portion of the income that will be obtained from the project will be transferred to the company named Tam Yazılım of the son of the AKP’s former Deputy General Chair with responsibility for local governance, Hüseyin Tanrıverdi, commented, “Religion and faith for the poor; religion and faith for students; wealth in abundance for AKP-affiliated companies,”
 
WASTE ON A FIVE-MILLION CAR
 
CHP Istanbul MP Barış Yarkadaş commented, “All these things show that the AKP ruling party has not drawn up a budget that is for the benefit of the people, but a budget that is for its own benefit. We know, too, how the parliamentary speaker uses his budget. We see the waste that is perpetrated from the books that are brought before us.”
 
Yarkadaş, recalling that Parliamentary Speaker İsmail Kahraman purchased an official car costing five million lira, turned to the AKP members with the appeal, “I would have liked for you to have objected to this. For heaven’s sake, does this parliament have the money to spend on a five-million-lira Mercedes? How much longer are you going to live on the back of this poor people? How much longer are you going to sit on this people’ back?”
 
11% GROWTH IS A LIE
 
Yarkadaş wound up as follows:
 
“We thus say that this budget is not for the benefit of the people. Do not attempt to trick anyone with lies about eleven per cent growth. What kind of growth is this when the number of unemployed keeps rising? What kind of growth is this when thousands of people phone us every day saying, ‘I cannot find a job. I cannot bring bread home. I am despondent and destitute.’ Had there been eleven per cent growth, unemployment would have fallen and bosses would have looked for qualified staff. Hence, I want to say once more that this budget is not for the benefit of the people.”