Former minister’s ‘confession’ about corruption allegations won’t be investigated

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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The statements of former Minister of Environment and Urbanization Erdoğan Bayraktar about the "corruption" investigations in 2013 will not be investigated by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.

The Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has concluded that there is no ground for investigating the remarks of Bayraktar, who was involved in the investigations on December 17-25, 2013. In its decision dated September 27, the Office said, "The same incident was investigated before."

Bayraktar said in an interview, "Whatever is in my file, both wiretaps and technical surveillance, is true." He then backed down from this statement. Following these remarks, the People's Liberation Party (HKP) filed a criminal complaint. With its complaint not turning into an investigation, the party has lodged an appeal, noting that these remarks are "new evidence."

In its petition, the HKP has said that "the prosecutor's office did not see the need to investigate the material facts about avowals and confessions and has ignored them." The party has also demanded that Cemil Çiçek, a current member of the Presidency's High Advisory Board and a former Parliamentary Speaker, be heard as a witness as part of the file.

Speaking about the issue, HKP Vice Secretary General and lawyer Tacettin Çolak has noted that "the investigation files should have been opened again following the new evidence." He has underlined that "the prosecutors who closed the file committed a crime as well."

In its criminal complaint, the HKP demanded that former ministers Erdoğan Bayraktar, Egemen Bağış, Muammer Güler and Zafer Çağlayan be investigated and prosecuted on charges of "establishing an organization to commit crimes", "embezzlement", "corruption/ bribery", "misconduct in office" and "the public officials' failure to report crimes."

What did Bayraktar say?

In an interview published on Diken news website on August 29, 2021, Erdoğan Bayraktar, one of the ministers involved in the "corruption" investigations in December 2013, stated, "Whatever is in my file, wiretaps, technical surveillance and my phone conversations are true from A to Z. The other [ministers' files] may be false, but mine is true."

In the interview, Bayraktan pointed out that he hadn't been charged with corruption and bribery unlike the three other ministers and complained that he had been "put into the same equation as them."

Former Minister of Environment and Urbanization Erdoğan Bayraktar made a new statement about the "corruption" investigations later on

"Anyone who reads the tapes and technical surveillance reports will understand how void was the file and how cruelly was it prepared," he wrote on Twitter on August 31, adding, "Those who do politics as if these files have a point are cruel as those who prepared them."

About December 17-25 period

In what is known today as "December 17-25 investigations" in 2013, the recordings of the the Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar's phone conversations were leaked to the media, along with three other ministers and the then Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

According to the tapes, Abdullah Bayraktar called his father while he was being detained at home on December 17, 2013. After learning about his son's detention, Bayraktar warned two senior ministry bureaucrats to go to the ministry so that they could avoid detention.

Along with Erdoğan Bayraktar, Minister of European Union (EU) Egemen Bağış, Minister of Interior Muammer Güler and Minister of Economy Zafer Çağlayan had to resign after the investigations.

Announcing his resignation on December 25, Bayraktar said Erdoğan should also resign as everything he did was within his knowledge. He later backed down from this statement and apologized to Erdoğan.

A parliamentary committee that was set up after the investigations accused Erdoğan Bayraktar of "approving irregular zoning projects" and "condoning the irregularities in some projects in exchange for benefits whose amount could not be determined."

At the time, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) accused its former ally Fetullah Gülen, a US-based former imam who had a large network of followers in state institutions, of plotting to overthrow the government on the pretext of corruption. The investigations were dismissed.

Gülen's group was later designated as the "Fetullahist Terrorist Organization" and is held responsible for the July 2016 coup attempt. Since then, tens of thousands of people have been dismissed from public service for being "FETÖ members." (DŞ/SD)