Turkey - BDP Deputy: Reveal AK Party deputies who left Mavi Marmara.

Turkey - BDP Deputy: Reveal AK Party deputies who left Mavi Marmara.(TZ).

A deputy from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) has maintained that some deputies from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and a columnist got off the Mavi Marmara boat, on which nine Turkish people were killed by Israeli troops as the boat carried humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, due to a warning from Turkey's intelligence agency.

Altan Tan, a BDP deputy, called on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to inform the public about that piece of intelligence and which deputies gave up the journey at the last minute.

Tan claimed that some AK Party deputies, including one who is very close to the prime minister, and a columnist from a prominent Turkish daily, left the Mavi Marmara just before Israeli troops launched an operation against those on board in international waters.

He said: “Some AK Party deputies and a columnist [whom everybody knows] got off the boat heading for Gaza at Antalya. Who are the people who got off as a result of intelligence provided by the National Intelligence Organization [MİT]?”

Tan also harshly criticized the government for its obstructive attitude towards the recent graft probe in which four former Cabinet ministers are also implicated. “This course of events is not a one that is desirable,” Tan said at a press meeting in Parliament on Wednesday, noting that Erdoğan has parted ways with former friends in a violent way instead of questioning where he has gone wrong.

Maintaining that Erdoğan has started to see everybody as an enemy, Tan said: “He [Erdoğan] must question why his relations with his friends, who supported him during the most difficult times, have deteriorated so badly. What should be done is some serious self-criticism and mutual apologies with his former friends.”

Noting that the government has removed many police officers from their posts following the graft probe, he said, “They are removing police officers linked with the Hizmet Movement and putting in their place those police officers from the old dark days [of the past].”

At the press conference, Tan criticized the government for signaling that a retrial may be possible in the Ergenekon and Sledgehammer coup plot cases.Hmmmm......Israel should never have apologized to these people.