“My elder sister, whose husband passed away many years ago, is an ordinary citizen of 68 and lives with her daughter in Batman. She has no income other than an old age pension,” said Mehmet Şimşek, speaking to the Anatolia news agency on Sunday. “Why does Kılıçdaroğlu not understand that a minister’s sister can also be in need of a green card? According to Kılıçdaroğlu’s mentality, when someone becomes a minister, all his relatives become rich. Kılıçdaroğlu is advocating the system of corruption with this statement. I condemn him.”Meanwhile, it was reported that Şimşek’s sister had the green card before Şimşek returned to Turkey and became a minister.
The minister also responded to Kılıçdaroğlu calling him “English Mehmet,” saying: “I am not ‘English Mehmet.’ I am the son of Hasan Şimşek and was born in the village of Arıca in Batman’s Gerçüş district.” Şimşek said Kılıçdaroğlu was not a person who deserved a response, but he wanted to prevent any public misunderstanding of Kılıçdaroğlu’s statements against him, remarks which he considered to be very low.
Şimşek said that before he became the Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) Gaziantep deputy, he had been working as a top-level manager in a London-based international finance institution. He had been responsible for the institution’s activities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “As I have stated many times, I took advantage of the rights of dual citizenship that the Turkish Constitution allows, after getting the necessary permission from the relevant state organizations. My dual citizenship has offered me many advantages. Since 1980, our governments have encouraged Turks living abroad to gain dual citizenship,” the minister noted.
Kılıçdaroğlu said in Denizli, “After Kemal Unakıtan, we now have English Mehmet, whose sister has the green card. To whom do we give the green card? Do we not give the green card to poor families? We must ask English Mehmet about this situation. We will ask him to reveal the facts. We will not allow people to gain money by exploiting poor families. ” He said if poor families are freed from exploitation, democracy will become firmly established in Turkey.
