BALIKESIR, Turkey
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed the opposition and the alleged ‘parallel state’ on Friday, while speaking at an AK Party rally in Turkey's western city of Balikesir.
Erdogan said that the parallel state was treason because it distributes the country's top-secrets to power groups against its government.
The ‘parallel state", is an alleged illegal structure nestled within key institutions of the state, is accused by the AK Party government of conducting operation targeting Turkey's stability.
The prime minister also blamed the opposition for cooperating with and providing sanctuary for the structure.
The government claims that the structure was behind the interception and the distribution of the wiretapped audio records.
He also called on people to boycott the Gulen movement's media outlets and schools. The parliament passed a bill on Friday transforming the private tutoring centers, which are widely run by the movement, into conventional private schools.
The Gulen movement was ‘irritated’ by the move, according to Erdogan, because the tutoring centers generate "US$1 billion" per year for the movement.
"(The movement) was handing out 'tolerance prizes' in the aftermath of the February 28, 1997 coup," said Erdogan, referring to the military's intervention in politics in 1997. "Today, they are providing eavesdropping technology assistance to the coup plotters".
On Feb. 28, 1997, the military effectively deposed the then prime minister, Necmettin Erbakan, who had been in office less than a year, leading to the collapse of his coalition government.
Turkey’s government also called the December 17 anti-graft operation and subsequent leakage of wiretapped recordings as coup attempts plotted by ‘parallel state’.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
