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| Europe |
| Turkish opposition leader resigns after sex tape |
| 2010-05-11 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] The veteran leader of Turkey's main secular opposition party resigned on Monday, saying he was the victim of a conspiracy following the release of a videotape on the Internet purporting to show him and a woman in a bedroom. "This is not a sex tape, this is a conspiracy....Those who were behind this conspiracy did it for political aims," Deniz Baykal, leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), told a news conference. "I am resigning from the CHP chairmanship. But my resignation does not mean that I am giving in or running away from this conspiracy. On the contrary, it is a challenge," he added. The short video, posted on the Internet late Thursday, showed intimate bedroom images, shot with a hidden camera, allegedly of the 71-year-old leader and a woman lawmaker from the CHP. During the press conference, Baykal did not openly admit to or deny an affair. The resignation of Deniz Baykal, a fierce critic of the ruling Islamist-leaning AK Party, comes as his secularist Republican People's Party (CHP) has pledged to block plans by the government to hold a referendum on constitutional reforms. "This kind of illegal activity carried out on the leader of the main opposition party could not have been done without the knowledge of the government," Baykal said. "If this has a price, and that price is the resignation from CHP leadership, I am ready to pay it. My resignation does not mean running away, or giving in," Baykal said. "On the contrary, it means that I'm fighting it." Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government is preparing to call a national referendum on constitutional reforms to overhaul the judiciary and make the army answerable to civilian courts, changes he says are needed to meet European Union entry demands. Secularist critics say the reforms are a furtive attempt by the AK Party to seize control of all levers of state and undermine Turkey's secularist constitution. Baykal had said the CHP will appeal to the Constitutional Court to block any referendum, which Erdogan wants to hold in July after winning parliamentary approval last week. "The target of this conspiracy is not just one person, but the struggle of the CHP...to uphold the republic, democracy and the rule of law," charged Baykal, a vocal critic of the government. Baykal's resignation comes just two weeks before a party congress when he was expected to seek a fresh mandate as the CHP leader. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 ION WAFF > ARE SCUDS [Armenian] AIMING AT ANATOLIA [Turkey]? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiloa 2010-05-11 01:02 |