Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Ankara deputy Murat Emir has filed a criminal complaint against Deputy Prime Minister Yıldırım Tuğrul Türkeş due to his 2015 remarks about National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks that allegedly transported weapons to jihadists in Syria.
Emir filed the complaint at the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s office against Türkeş, who said during a TV program in November 2015 that the MİT trucks were not taking weapons to the Turkmens in Syria, contrary to the claims of the Turkish government.
“I swear on God’s name before everyone who is watching us, those weapons were not being delivered to Turkmens. I know it,” Türkeş said back then on CNN Türk.
In his complaint, Emir said based on Article 329 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) that “a person who reveals intelligence that must remain confidential for the security and domestic and foreign political interests of the state shall receive a prison sentence of between five and ten years.”
The CHP filed the complaint against Türkeş after a CHP deputy, Enis Berberoğlu, was given a prison sentence of 25 years for leaking information for a report on MİT trucks transporting weapons to jihadists in Syria.
Journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül also were tried due to a report in the Cumhuriyet daily in May 2015 as they published photos of weapons that were allegedly being transported to Syria in trucks operated by MİT.