“We do not have any such intention. How do you make up such things?” Kılıçdaroğlu asked reporters on Sunday. The CHP leader was visiting the southern province of Antalya at the time.
In its lead story on Sunday, the Yeni Şafak daily claimed that the CHP's Süheyl Batum was working on a project to bring three Ergenekon suspects -- journalists Mustafa Balbay and Tuncay Özkan and former Başkent University Rector Mehmet Haberal -- to Parliament. The alleged project is reminiscent of how the now-defunct Democratic Society Party (DTP) brought its İstanbul deputy, Sabahat Tuncel, to the legislature. Tuncel, who was among the suspects in a terrorism-related trial, acquired parliamentary immunity and was released from prison when she was elected to Parliament in the 2007 elections. According to Yeni Şafak, Kılıçdaroğlu gave the green light for this to happen.
The CHP leader, however, denied the report. “I also learned about this [CHP project for Ergenekon suspects] from the media,” he stated.
The claims that the CHP planned to bring Ergenekon suspects to Parliament as deputies comes shortly after former Justice Minister Seyfi Oktay, also a suspect in both the Ergenekon trial and the related investigation into the Sledgehammer plot to overthrow the government, joined the CHP.
Ergenekon suspect Özkan had wanted to join the CHP earlier, but the former party chairman, Deniz Baykal, rejected his candidacy. Özkan, the former owner of the Kanal Türk TV station, came into the spotlight when it was publicly disclosed that the CHP gave TL 6 million to his channel. An investigation into this started about two years ago. The CHP defended itself by saying that the money was paid as part of an advertising campaign to promote the party.
