Politics is Ugly in the Countryside, Too

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Sözcü Newspaper, 14 December 2017)


Tough guy mayors Yaralı  & Çerçi, bookends. Hapless Diktaş
at upper right.

Suat Diktaş, the director of rural services for the Saruhanlı municipality
in Manisa province, was kidnapped at gunpoint by the mayors of
Saruhanlı and Yunusemre districts and interrogated for two hours. 
Diktaş related his traumatic experience in a letter to AKP (Turkey's
ruling party) Parliamentarian Erol Kaya, who is also the head of the
AKP's Local Administrations group. 

In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Sözcü, Diktaş stated that
he was questioned about CHP (Turkey's main opposition party)
parliamentarians and deputy mayors.  Diktaş told Sözcü that AKP
big-wigs advised him to "wait, don't do anything. We're waiting for
guidance from AKP Headquarters."

 The text of Diktaş's letter:

"On 30 October 2017, at about 11 o'clock, as I went to a day-care center
run by the Yunusemre municipality,  Mayor Mehmet Çerçi was going
there, as well.  Mehmet Öcal and a man in a grey suit, along with an
armed bodyguard named Volkan, stopped my car and made me get out,
saying that "Mehmet Çerçi wants to see you."  A group of between 10
and 15 armed men took me to a place near the day-care center where
there were no cameras. 

Next, someone said "call Saruhanlı Mayor Hüseyin Yaralı and have
him come here, too."  Then they took me to a building in the industrial
area belonging to the Yunusemre municipality, where the two mayors
interrogated me like prosecutors.  They mentioned Deputy Mayor Kılıç
Kaya and asked 'is he taking bribes? It seems you've sent documents
to Ankara and Istanbul.  Have you spoken with Özgür Özel and his
advisors? Are you a MİT (Turkish intelligence) agent? Are you the man
of someone in Ankara?'  Later, AKP Parliamentarian Metin Külünk said
that he called the governor and the police to say that I had been kidnapped.
The police brought me to the police station."

 As for Külünk, he subsequently said that he was sorry about the incident
and that Diktaş's letter was laying in front of Erol Kaya.