Facing probe, CHP head defends 'sham dictator' comment

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal K?l?çdaro?lu insisted on calling President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an a "sham dictator" in his weekly address to party MPs on Jan. 19, while slamming Erdo?an for "spending too much." 

"What he gets angry about is not the fact that I call him a dictator. He gets angry when I call him the 'sham dictator.' Because he could not even be a dictator," K?l?çdaro?lu said, in reference to news that a prosecutor's investigation has been launched into his earlier comments. 

The CHP head said he had previously used the word "dictator" during a public meeting in the Aegean province of Ayd?n and the president did not react to it then. 

"But when I called him the 'sham dictator,' he took offense. He sued me. I will do nothing about it. I'll just send [the court] his oath at parliament. I'm not the one who took that oath; he is. In that oath he swore impartiality. He will account for this," K?l?çdaro?lu said.

In response to Justice Minister Bekir Bozda?, who said the CHP head's remarks also "insulted the public" as Erdo?an was elected with 52 percent of the votes, K?l?çdaro?lu recalled that Kenan Evren, the leader of the 1980 military coup, was supported by 92 percent of the votes.

"The first [thing about] dictators is that they are thieves. There are no dictators who are not thieves," he said. 

"Their second characteristic is that they see public resources as their own wallet," he added, noting that the government would be presenting its new budget without a number of key reports from the Court of Accounts. 

"Let me give you one example. [The president] spent 1.616 billion Turkish Liras in the first 11 months [of 2015] from the discretionary fund. No one knows what...