Reporters attending MHP's Diyarbakır press conference offered 50 Turkish Liras

DİYARBAKIR/ANKARA - Hürriyet

The party's local head Mehmet Tayyar Karakoç (C) denied having any knowledge of the incident. DHA photo

Local officials from the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) have raised eyebrows after an individual offered money in envelopes to journalists attending a press conference April 18, as party officials cried conspiracy. Reporters in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır covering the MHP's statements were shocked when someone tried forcefully to put envelopes in their pockets after the press conference.

One of the journalists who took the envelope, thinking that it was a press release, discovered it contained a 50 Turkish Lira banknote. However the party's local head Mehmet Tayyar Karakoç denied having any knowledge of the incident, and deputy chairman Tuğrul Türkeş called the incident a "conspiracy" against the MHP. Türkeş said everyone in the party was bewildered by what had happened. "The most surprised is the provincial head. He learned what had happened following a journalist's phone call. We are looking into who gave the money and why." 

Türkeş added that it was not a coincidence that the incident had happened in Diyarbakır, as the MHP is strongly opposed to the ongoing peace process between the Turkish government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). "Look, the incident took place in Diyarbakır, not in Tokat, not in Çorum [in Central Anatolia]. This is a cheap conspiracy.”