The son-in-law dilemma for Turkish justice

Amid the Qatar crisis which is straining the entire neighborhood, Turkish politics has become occupied with a son-in-law crisis where the courts are accused of positive discrimination in the case of the relatives of key political figures of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti).

The debate started when Ömer Faruk Kavurmacı, the son-in-law of Istanbul's powerful mayor, Kadir Topbaş, was released on May 5. Kavurmacı was arrested following the July 15, 2016, coup attempt which has been blamed on U.S.-resident Islamist preacher Fethullah Gülen. Kavurmacı was on the board of TUSKON, a Gülenist business organization which used to be favored by AK Parti governments but later became the target of accusations of funding the "terrorist network of Gülen."

Kavurmacı's release by an Istanbul court was based on a medical report that stated he was epileptic.
Opposition leaders, including Devlet Bahçeli of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), who offered strategic support to President Tayyip Erdoğan to usher in the executive presidential system in an April 16 referendum, criticized the release, claiming it had hurt the people's feeling of justice.

Noting that there were hundreds in jail suffering worse health problems, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of the social democratic Republican People's Party (CHP) claimed the court had released Kavurmacı based on government instructions. 

The debate became further heated when Ekrem Yeter, the son-in-law of former Parliamentary Speaker and Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç, was arrested but then released just three days later on June 8. Yeter was the chairman of the now-closed International Federation of Health (USAF), another organization accused of being a front for the Gülenist network. Yeter was...

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