The Defense Ministry will use all of its legal rights, the ministry sources said Thursday in response to recent remarks from the main opposition leader toward commanders of the Turkish army.
“Statements targeting the persons of our Land Forces commanders or the Defense Ministry in general are unacceptable,” the ministry sources told reporters at a weekly press briefing in the capital, Ankara.
Republican People's Party (CHP) Chair Özgür Özel earlier this week vowed to “settle accounts” with commanders of the Turkish army’s land forces and naval forces, claiming they played a role in the dismissal of a group of military school graduates and pressured a general to retire in the same incident.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan himself on Wednesday hit out at Özel for “overstepping his limit,” saying they would file a lawsuit and urging the commanders to take the same legal action.
The CHP fiercely defended a group of lieutenants who were expelled from the army when they insisted on reciting a discontinued military oath during a graduation ceremony also attended by Erdoğan last year. The oath is seen as a symbol of secular extremists who oppose Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party) lengthy governance in Turkish politics.
AK Party spokesperson Ömer Çelik accused Özel of “using the language of certain foreign politicians who are adverse towards Türkiye.”
In a post on X, Çelik urged CHP executives to confront the remarks of their leaders by “respecting their own political history.”
