Kilicdaroglu told the parliament yesterday, “We have all the records of this company. We also have all the documents of the financial transactions … we also have bank receipts.” Turkey’s version of C-SPAN, state broadcaster TRT, abruptly cut the transmission.
CHP lawmakers called for Erdogan to step down.
Erdogan has denied any wrongdoing, accusing Kilicdaroglu and his party of “treason” and threatening to retaliate. “If you strike me, be prepared to be struck back,” he thundered on Tuesday. The courts apparently took their cue, while Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) quashed an opposition motion to investigate offshore accounts. Pro-Erdogan newspapers chimed in with reports that FETO operators, who had fed him false reports about Erdogan, had duped Kilicdaroglu.
Nicholas Danforth, a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center who specializes in Turkish affairs, observed that the Turkish government’s propaganda machine is now bent on conflating Zarrab’s testimony with Kilicdaroglu’s accusations against the Erdogan family as part of the alleged Western plot against Turkey. “There is a simultaneous effort to ignore and discredit the Zarrab case, while invoking it as needed to accuse Kilicdaroglu of acting on behalf of foreign powers,” Danforth told Al-Monitor. “My fear is that if [the corruption claim] pushes him [Erdogan] to intensify his crackdown on domestic opposition — as suggested by the rhetoric and charges against Kilicdaroglu — it could further erode his veneer of democratic legitimacy and make an already volatile situation worse.”
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/11/turkey-defensive-reza-zarrab-testifies.html