Turkish parliament grants 'Islamist' Pres Erdoğan secret discretionary fund & personal Intell org.

Turkish parliament grants 'Islamist' Pres. Erdoğan secret discretionary fund and the right to establish his own intelligence org. (Bugun).

For the first time in Turkish history, the president has been granted a secret discretionary fund that doesn't require disclosure, a fund normally reserved for only the prime minister.

Early on Friday morning parliamentarians from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) passed a last minute amendment to a contentious omnibus bill granting the president a secret discretionary fund like that of the prime minister. The political opposition is up in arms over the move, saying it is a violation of the constitution which explicitly states that the president doesn't have executive powers and therefore should not be able to utilize such a fund.

The amendment was proposed by the recently-appointed Interior Minister Sebahattin Öztürk on the grounds that the presidency needed a secret discretionary fund “to provide covert intelligence and covert defence services, meet the needs of national security and higher interests and preserve the dignity of the state, serve political, social and culture goals and provide extraordinary services.”

During his 11 years as prime minister, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spent TRY 7.09 billion (USD 2.7 billion) from the prime ministry’s discretionary fund. What started as a TRY 100 million annual fund when Erdoğan took power in 2003 ballooned to TRY 1.24 billion a year by 2013, a twelve-fold increase in just eleven years. (So did increase ME Terrorism)

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Group Deputy Chair Akif Hamzaçebi noted that the constitution did not authorize the president to act as an executive or issue orders regarding covert intelligence activities, “with this amendment the parliamentary system has been put on hold, this is a coup against the constitution.” 

He added that by giving President Erdoğan a secret discretionary fund, the amendment was designed to make it easier than ever for the National Intelligence Agency (MİT) to operate on nothing more than Erdoğan’s orders without any oversight. Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Group Deputy Chair Oktay Vural similarly slammed the amendment, adding that the provision was tantamount to a coup. Hmmmm.....Someone planning to organize and fund ISIS II?

Flashback: 2,72 Billion Dollars used by Erdoğan from 'discretionary funds’

Serious question: Does the black fund allocated for RTE have a territorial exception; meaning can it be used domestically?

— Aaron Stein (@aaronstein1) March 27, 2015