AKP mayor criticizes culture minister over failure to investigate alleged bribery, walks out of meeting
A mayor from the ruling AKP has announced that he walked out of a meeting with Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Culture and Tourism Minister Nuri Ersoy on May 5. Enver Aputkan, the mayor of Serik district in Antalya, said that he left the meeting after finding out that the government was aware of an alleged bribery payment made to former Serik mayor but did not do anything to investigate the incident.
Duvar English
Enver Aputkan, a mayor from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for the Serik district of Turkey's southern Antalya province, announced on his Twitter account on May 5 that he walked out of a teleconference meeting attended by other Antalya district mayors as well as Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Culture and Tourism Minister Nuri Ersoy.
During the meeting, which was organized to discuss investment opportunities in Antalya, Aputkan found out from Minister Ersoy that the former Serik mayor had received an alleged bribery worth 500,000 Turkish Liras (approximately $69,620) from an enterprise.
Being angered at the fact that the government was aware of this alleged bribery payment but did not do anything to investigate the incident, Aputkan walked out of the meeting, claiming to have said to Minister Ersoy: “If you know this as a state minister but are not addressing this issue, shame on you.”
Aputkan said that he will get in contact with the Interior Ministry regarding this alleged payment.
“I want the necessary statements to be made from our two relevant ministers, our esteemed deputies and two provincial heads regarding this 500,000 lira worth payment mentioned in this meeting which was attended by approximately 60 people. I will ask from our esteemed Interior Minister for an inspector to be assigned for an investigation regarding this 500,000 lira payment,” Aputkan's statement read.