Erdoğan's children may run for Parliament to gain immunity from prosecution.

Erdoğan's children may run for Parliament to gain immunity from prosecution. (TodaysZaman).

Erdoğan's children may run for Parliament to gain immunityVarious signals that the children of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan may run for Parliament in the upcoming elections are an indication that Erdoğan might feel it necessary for them to acquire legislative immunity as they may face charges of corruption in the future based on voice recordings.

Erdoğan's daughter Sümeyye Erdoğan will possibly run as deputy in the elections to be held in June, the Hürriyet daily said on Sunday, confirming previous remarks made by some leading ruling party officials which had implied the same.

The eventual nomination of two of Erdoğan's children by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) as candidates in the general election is widely seen as an effort to offer them legislative protection against possible charges of corruption that were revealed by two sweeping graft probes that went public in December 2013.

“Above all, I believe Erdoğan wants his children to become deputies for the immunity the position offers,” Mahmut Akpınar, a security analyst at the Ankara-based Center of Law, Ethics and Political Studies (HESA), told Today's Zaman.

It is also unethical for Erdoğan to pave the way for his children to run for Parliament by using his political sway over the ruling party, which Erdoğan headed before being elected president in August of last year for almost 15 years, according to analysts.“It would not be appropriate in terms of political ethics for the children of a president to be in politics,” Yusuf Halaçoğlu, the parliamentary group deputy chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), told Today's Zaman, noting that it is very rare to observe such a thing in democracies. Hmmm.....'Advanced Islamist Democracy' Turkey for dummies. Read the full story here.