CHP leader under fire from within for honoring controversial journalists

Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has touched off controversy within his party after honoring arrested journalists who were arrested after the July 15 coup attempt but who were alleged to have aided the infamous Ergenekon and "Balyoz" (Sledgehammer) plots.

"It is impossible to find it right to reward and applaud such people by considering them as respected," Deniz Baykal, the party's former leader and a current Antalya deputy for the CHP, stated in a televised interview on CNN Türk on Dec. 5. 

"The CHP has almost no red line on any topic anymore," CHP Bursa lawmaker Tanju Özcan told state-run Anadolu Agency on Dec. 5.

The CHP lawmakers' criticisms came after Kılıçdaroğlu read out the names of journalists who were arrested in the aftermath of the July 15 coup attempt during a Dec. 3 rally in Adana, during which he asked supporters to respond by shouting "present." 

Along with arrested daily Cumhuriyet journalists and writers, the CHP leader included Nazlı Ilıcak, Mehmet Altan, Ahmet Altan, Şahin Alpay and Ali Bulaç, causing outrage among some CHP lawmakers and supporters since they were accused of cheerleading the Ergenekon and Balyoz cases, which were allegedly prosecuted by members of the judiciary from the Gülenist movement. 

Baykal said some of the journalists on the list had published fabricated evidence during the Ergenekon case process.

"Some of the names [on the list] were architects of the Ergenekon process. They were the active element of a great conspiracy that made it possible for everyone to believe the fabricated evidence by adopting, polishing and publishing it without any convincing evidence," he said.

Baykal said Turkey was on the verge of a very important...