AK party accuses opposition head of betraying Turkey

By Aynur Ekiz and Sinan Uslu

ANKARA

The spokesman for Turkey's ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party on Friday accused opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu of “betrayal”.

“Kilicdaroglu's rhetoric after July 15, his tone, strategy, this way of politics which he executes systematically, is more than making the moral compass of our nation bleed,” Mahir Unal said, referring to last year’s coup attempt.

“It has almost reached a point of betrayal.”

Earlier, Kilicdaroglu, head of the Republican People's Party (CHP), had referred to the killing of soldiers in Istanbul in the wake of the attempted coup.

“Kilicdaroglu, who been using any kind of rhetoric to defame July 15, and has been using Fetullah Terrorist Organisation rhetoric, is now sharing what is whispered in his ears in order to defame the heroes of July 15,” Unal told reporters at the party’s headquarters in Ankara.

Referring to the claim that a soldier was beheaded on the Bosphorus Bridge in the aftermath of the failed coup, Unal said: “It was revealed on the Internet, as you know, that those pictures belonged to a soldier in Taiwan.”

He called on Kilicdaroglu to openly declare his support for the putschists.

“Maybe the plans that Kilicdaroglu dreamed of were not realized,” Unal added.

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Gulen orchestrated the defeated July 15 coup attempt that left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.