Prosecutor launches probe into controversial Adana mayor

Durak, who filed complaints against himself and Mustafa Tuncel -- a city council member who initially made accusations against him -- also said he would be going along with a call from Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli that Durak should resign, speaking to journalists outside the Adana Courthouse yesterday.

Allegations against Durak were first voiced by some members of the city council. According to these allegations, the mayor had TL 50,000 in earnings and 500,000 square meters of land listed on his financial statement in 2001. In 2010 the mayor owned 1.8 million square meters of land while the cash in bank accounts under his name totaled $1 million. He said, “My wife is rich,” in response to the allegations.

The first allegation was made by Tuncel, known to be Durak’s right-hand man, earlier this month. Tuncel claimed that Durak had $2 billion in assets, while Durak denied this, saying his assets amounted to $40 million. Durak called on Tuncel to press charges against him, saying he had done nothing wrong.

Speaking to journalists outside the courthouse yesterday, Durak said he had spent his life fighting corruption and bribery. He also asked Tuncel to give to the prosecutor’s office a voice recording citing the full list of allegations against Durak and all the information Tuncel has about his alleged dirty dealings.

“A person who really wants to shed light on corrupt deals would make the evidence they have public,” Durak said. “For days he has said he will disclose this information he says he has.

Someone who knows something would tell what they know. Since he hasn’t gone to the prosecutor himself, I demand that everything that has been said or written about me in the national press be taken as a tipoff for the investigation. I am not saying this for Mustafa Tuncel only. If there is anybody else in Adana who knows anything about me, please go to the prosecutors.”

He also said he had written a letter to MHP parliamentary group deputy chairman Oktay Vural, which he shared with the press. Durak said Vural talked about him, saying, “‘I heard him [Durak] being accused of bribery.’ Nobody has ever accused me of accepting bribes. Even Mustafa Tuncel says, ‘I can’t say he accepted bribes.’ To the contrary, I have always fought bribery. Those of you who don’t have enough information about me, please do not talk,” he said, in angry remarks directed at Vural.

In his speech in front of the courthouse, Durak also denied news stories that appeared in Wednesday’s papers which stated that he had asked for a meeting with MHP leader Bahçeli. “They are lying again. I never asked to schedule a meeting with him,” he said.

He also told reporters that he was the victim of a similar political conspiracy 45 years ago. “I had delayed my military service until I was 32 as I was a local village affairs director then. I did things that hurt the political interests of others. There were two ministers from Adana at the time who canceled my formal military service delay form. I had just gotten married one-and-a-half months earlier. They did all they could to send me off to the military as fast as they could. I had to pay 1,000 [lira] to racketeers to undo that conspiracy. This is what Tuncel means when he says ‘he bribed someone.’ I trust the noble Turkish judiciary.”