CHP to back Feb 28 probe conditionally

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Deputy parliamentary group leader of the CHP, Muharrem İnce proposes to set up an investigative commission about all of the military coups in Turkey. Hürriyet photo

The main opposition has conditionally backed the government’s suggestion to set up a parliamentary investigation committee to examine the Feb. 28 process but also recommended that the committee look into all military coups, including the 1980 putsch.

“The AKP [Justice and Development Party] and the prime minister are not people who were pained or troubled by the coups. On the contrary, they are a product of the Sep. 12 and Feb. 28 coups. If they want to call the people [who staged the coups] to account, we should do it together,” Muharrem İnce, deputy parliamentary group leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), told reporters yesterday.

“We would stand by this. Let’s set up an investigative commission about all of [the coups],” he said.
The military coups and military memorandums in Turkey had hindered the democratic progress of the country, İnce said, highlighting the need to “call everyone to account.”

İnce said the CHP had been banned and that all of its assets were confiscated by the military junta in 1980, causing a lasting effect on the party. “[Our assets] were expropriated, our party was shut down.”