Presidential candidate for Turkey’s parliamentary main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Muharrem İnce asked on Tuesday if it is the task of the intelligence agency to follow opposition campaigns, in response to remarks by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Earlier in the day, Erdoğan had said intelligence units identified participants of İnce's rally in Diyarbakır, in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey, as supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).
"He said he had an intelligence report about the people who attended my rally. Is it the intelligence's job to monitor the opposition?" İnce said in a tweet on June 12.
Erdoğan had said in an election rally: "He held a rally in Diyarbakır. According to the information I received from the intelligence, almost all participants [of İnce’s] Diyarbakır rally were from the HDP."
İnce also reminded that Erdoğan had admittedly noticed what was happening on the evening of the July 15, 2016, military coup due to his brother-in-law who called him to warn that tanks were rolling through the streets.
"You are using the intelligence units for your political goals, so you had to learn about the coup from your BROTHER-IN-LAW," İnce tweeted, adding that "everyone, including those who previously voted for the [ruling Justice and Development Party] AKP, is attending my rallies."
Erdoğan also criticized İnce's visit to the HDP's jailed presidential candidate, Selahattin Demirtaş, in Edirne Prison on May 9.
Speaking less than two weeks ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections, Erdoğan yesterday said jets have struck Iraq's Qandil mountains, where outlawed Kurdish PKK militants maintain their headquarters.
