Acquittals in Gezi Trial: How Did AKP React?

Photo: AA

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Several senior figures from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have criticized the acquittal of defendants in the trial over the 2013 Gezi Park protests.

İstanbul 30th Heavy Penal Court ruled yesterday (February 18) that there was not sufficient evidence to support the charges, which included attempted overthrow of the government.

While nine of the 16 defendants have been acquitted, the court has separated the files of seven defendants who are currently abroad and removed the arrest warrants on them.

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"If the Gezi succeeded, we would experience a period where governments are formed on the streets. Although the court gave a verdict of acquittal due to insufficient evidence, it is convicted in the nation's conscience," AKP Parliamentary Group Deputy Chair Bülent Turan tweeted.

Noting that the appeal period continues to run, he said, "We didn't forget the vandalism, aggression, terror that was experienced!"

"This constitutes a stage of a trial process. The judiciary has its say, it is not right for us to comment," Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın told a press briefing after yesterday's cabinet meeting.

"The damage the Gezi incidents, as an uprising, inflicted on the country shouldn't be forgotten. Examining [it] as a whole, let's not forget that Turkey went through hard times," he added.

Atatürk Cultural Center on Taksim Square during the protests (Photo: bianet)

AKP Deputy Chair Mahir Ünal also tweeted on the court decision, saying, "You were all there and everything happened when you were there. We all know that 'it was not trees'," referring to the beginning of the protests, where a few hundred people demonstrated against the removal of trees in the Gezi Park in Taksim, İstanbul. The protests had spread all over the country within a few days.

"We respect the judicial decision, but no judicial decision can vindicate acts of violence that continued for days, yelling 'We will overthrow the government,' and this much destruction, burning down and looting. #GeziCoup [#GeziDarbesi]," he said.

Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank tweeted, "Gezi Uprising, which lost the most beautiful years to our country, inflicted the greatest blow to our democracy and economy, aimed to overthrow the elected government through vandalism, was a showground for terrorist organizations, is obviously treason, without ifs or buts!"

Mehmet Muş, another parliamentary group chair of the party, tweeted, "The defendants may have been acquitted by the courts, but if you claim to seek your rights, you can't turn cars upside down and burn them. Destroying even the stall of the bagel seller, vandalizing those places, putting the rags of the terror groups on the roof of the AKM [Atatürk Cultural Center] are not methods of seeking rights. For us, Gezi is vandalism." (EKN/VK)