Turkey: CHP's Enis Berberoglu takes oath in parliament

by Muhammet Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) lawmaker Enis Berberoglu took his oath of office in parliament today, weeks after his seat in the assembly allowed him to leave prison -- for now.

Berberoglu took his oath under the chairmanship of Deputy Speaker Mustafa Sentop, with CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu attending.

Turkey’s Supreme Court ruled on Sept. 20 that Berberoglu’s prison sentence be suspended until the end of his term as deputy, when his parliamentary immunity ends.

In June 2017, Berberoglu was sentenced to 25 years in prison for leaking state secrets to a newspaper. The sentence was later affirmed by an appeals court.

Berberoglu was found guilty of leaking footage to a journalist showing Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) trucks being stopped en route to Syria in January 2014.

In that incident, gendarmerie officers affiliated with the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) stopped the MIT trucks on their way to Syria, despite government orders to let them pass.

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated a defeated coup on July 15, 2016, leaving 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.