Turkish PM accuses main opposition leader of nepotism

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said he has two documents proving that the main opposition Republican People Party's (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu engaged in nepotism during his tenure as the head of the country's social security institution.

Speaking at the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) provincial congress in the central Anatolian province of Nevşehir on Dec. 13, Davutoğlu claimed that Kılıçdaroğlu had employed 3,209 people without holding the required exam and awarded government contracts to "scores of his fellows."

Turkish PM then flaunted two papers that he claims to prove Kılıçdaroğlu's abuse of power during his time as the head of the Social Security Authority (SSK). One of the documents is an inspection report bearing the signature of Kılıçdaroğlu himself, Davutoğlu added.

The debate was triggered when CHP Deputy Chair Haluk Koç disclosed a list of hundreds of relatives and friends of Cabinet members and AKP lawmakers who have been appointed to state positions without passing the required exam. Kılıçdaroğlu had then challenged counterarguments from AKP executives suggesting that he had shown favoritism at the SSK in the 1990s.

"I fling all their corruption in their faces and the only answer that they can give is accusing us of being coup plotters. The only coup plotter in this country is this government that steals from its people," Kılıçdaroğlu said in a tweet on Dec. 13 in response to Davutoğlu's latest statement.