Parliamentary Groups Round-up: Opposition Leaders Lash Out at 'Journalist Profiling Report'

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Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Sezai Temelli, İYİ (Good) Party Chair Meral Akşener, and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chair Devlet Bahçeli have spoken at their parties' parliamentary groups. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the President and the chair of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) did not make a speech this week as he is in Bosnia for an official visit.

CHP: SETA is not a think tank but the mouthpiece of the AKP

Kılıçdaroğlu touched on several issues such as the anniversary of the Çorlu train derailment, students' protests against a construction plan in the woods on the campus of the Middle East Technical University (METU), President Erdoğan's replacement of the governor of the Central Bank and the pro-government think tank SETA's report on foreign media outlets in Turkey, directing criticism to the government.

On the SETA report, Kılıçdaroğlu said, "It is said in the report that foreign media organizations have extensions in Turkey, we have to do something about this."

"If you profile journalists, where do you get true news? Will we get true news from those who bow to the government, or from independent journalists?

"SETA is fed by the government. It gives them a lot of money. Ninety-five percent of the media is not independent. They write whatever the government wants. I don't call them journalists anyway.

"SETA is not a think tank. It is a mouthpiece of the government. I waste my time spending this much time on this report.

"They changed the governor of the Central Bank. Erdoğan would say, 'Reduce the interest rates,' they would reduce them. He would say, 'Increase,' they would increase.

"They laid the responsibility on the Governor of the Central Bank. Reduce the interest rates to zero in the next meeting then, I will applaud you."

CLICK - Journalism Organizations Denounce SETA Report

HDP: This is profiling

Sezai Temelli also criticized the SETA report, saying that what the think tank aimed with the report is profiling the journalists.

Referring to a similar incident in 1998, known as "the media memorandum," Temelli said, "In the 90s, military quarters would do such business, now research groups do. This means we stepped into a new age!"

"The report didn't overlook us. Having relations with us was pictured as a crime. Not reporting about the HDP, but what you did is a crime!"

İYİ Party: Erdoğan does not discharge his son-in-law

Meral Akşener criticized the government for the economic situation after the Governor of the Central Bank was discharged and replaced with his deputy.

Referring to Berat Albayrak, Erdoğan's son-in-law and the Minister of Treasury and Finance, Akşener said, "When there is the son-in-law, there is no economy. When there is Bahçeli (Devlet, an ally of Erdoğan), there is no peace. When there is Erdoğan, there is no stability. Would this model do any good for the country?

"Mr. Erdoğan and his son-in-law don't stop talking about the structural reforms recently. The most important structural reform is preventing politicians from playing with laws like puzzles.

"They discharged the Governor of the Central Bank with a presidential decree on Saturday night. Unfortunately, Mr. Erdoğan does not discharge his son-in-law, whom he needs to discharge."

CLICK - New Central Bank Head Accused of Plagiarism

MHP: 'Terrorist Demirtaş'

Devlet Bahçeli, an ally of President Erdoğan under the informal "People's Alliance," talked about the coup attempt on July 15, 2016, the disputed presidential system that was adopted in 2017, called Selahattin Demirtaş, the imprisoned former co-chair of the HDP "a terrorist," and claimed that Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of İstanbul from the CHP cooperate with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

"With the presidential government system, the era of incompatibility between actions and the law ended. According to the CHP's cheap mind, the president needs to be impartial. If Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu believes what he says, he should show me one impartial president in the history of the republic."

Saying that "the circle is tightening" for Kılıçdaroğlu, Bahçeli remarked that he is afraid he will end up in a "cave in Qandil", the base of the PKK.

On İmamoğlu, he said, "As if he is done with İstanbul, he said he wants to go to Diyarbakır and said, 'We need to make people make peace with each other. This person's yearning for terrorist Demirtaş is growing stronger day by day."

CLICK - İstanbul Mayor Visits HDP: Why is Demirtaş Arrested?

(EKN/AS/HA/VK)