Arrested deputy: I’m a politician

One of the arrested suspects in the ongoing Ergenekon probe and opposition deputy, Mustafa Balbay said in court yesterday he wanted to serve Turkey as a politician.

“The manner in which we are tried amounts to being equal before crime, rather than being equal before the law. I feel that I am at an ideal age to serve this country in terms of my level of professional experience,” Balbay, a deputy from the main opposition People’s Republican Party (CHP), said in court.

Balbay also said he was one of the 550 deputies who could shape Turkey’s destiny, adding that 15 percent of his term of service as a deputy had already expired.

“I want to serve the sovereign Parliament established by Atatürk,” he said in Istanbul’s 13th Court for Serious Crimes.

Balbay also criticized the team of experts who were charged with evaluating the digital information seized from him as part of the investigation.

“Nine months have passed. An institution is obliged to answer you in 15 days. You could count it as a crime when no answer is given. They have to provide you with an excuse unless they give an answer,” he said. “Is it your fault or mine that this report has not arrived?”

Ergenekon is an alleged ultranationalist gang that is accused of plotting to overthrow the government by fomenting chaos in society.