“Kidnapping scandal” in the AKP

A “kidnapping scandal” has emerged in the AKP. Manisa’s Saruhanlı Municipality Rural Services Director, Suat Diktaş, was kidnapped at gunpoint by the AKP Yunusemre and Saruhanlı sub-province mayors and interrogated for two hours. Diktaş described what happened to him in a letter he sent to the AKP Local Government Chair and Istanbul MP Erol Kaya.
 
According to a report by Veli Toprak of Sözcü, the incident is set out in detail in the letter. Diktaş says he was interrogated about CHP MPs and the deputy mayors. Diktaş commented, “The senior party people I spoke to said, ‘Wait, don’t do anything.’ I am waiting for the decision headquarters will take.” Diktaş described the incident as follows:
 
“WHOSE MAN ARE YOU?”
 
“While I was making my way to Yunusemre Municipality’s creche at around 11.00 hours on 30 October 2017, the mayor Mehmet Çerçi also came. Mehmet Öcal and a person in a grey suit who were following me, along with bodyguard Volkan, whose gun I saw, swerved in front of me and I was taken out of the car. They said, ‘Mehmet Çerçi is asking for you.’ They took me to the side of the creche where there are no cameras along with their armed men ten to fifteen strong. They then gave the instruction, ‘Call Saruhanlı Mayor Hüseyin Yaralı and let him come, too.’ They took me to a building in the Organised Industrial Zone belonging to Yunusemre Municipality. The two mayors spent two hours taking my statement under duress like prosecutors. They asked with reference to Deputy Mayor Kılıç Kaya, ‘Does he take bribes?’ They asked questions like, ‘You supposedly sent documents to Ankara and Istanbul and spoke to Özgür Özel and his advisers. Are you with the intelligence agency? Whose man are you in Ankara?’ Then, our MP Metin Külünk called the provincial governor and police chief and said I had been kidnapped. I was taken by the police to the police station.”
 
The AKP Istanbul MP mentioned in the letter, Metin Külünk, made do with stating that he was “upset” and saying, “The letter is sitting in front of Mr Erol Kaya.”