Berat Albayrak's lawyer, Ahmet Özel, published a statement regarding the libel of the Turkish daily, Cumhuriyet, on Friday. Cumhuriyet wrote a story about the trade and transfer of Kurdish oil from Iraq and published it in the paper's headline by quoting a book written by the Washington representative of another Turkish daily , Hürriyet. Cumhuriyet alleged that Berat Albayrak, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's son-in-law, was involved in the so-called trade which is especially arranged for him. Özel said in his statement that "the article published in the Turkish daily, Cumhuriyet, on March 13, 2015, titled ‘Crude Oil Favor to the Son-in-Law' has allegations and claims about my client that have no basis, are not true and are slanderous. All allegations in the article about my client are false and defamatory. My client is not in any way involved with the company and the business stated." The statement further read : "such journalism based on personal grudges and malice aims only to use my client as a means to abuse this country's values and culture. We hereby announce that we will utilize all our legal rights effectively and immediately against this slanderous campaign carried out through a newspaper, which has served certain circles from the day it was established, and has become the voice of fascism and extrajudicial execution and obsessive journalists."