The pressure is mounting for Turkey's main opposition party CHP's General Secretary Onder Sav's resignation after his claims of being illegally tapped were proved groundless and a document surfaced which shows he paid money to a TV channel.
Sav claimed last week his office was tapped by security forces after an Islamist newspaper published word-for-word his conversation during a meeting with a governor. The incident sparked a fierce debate over illegal tapping, in which a court ruling was revealed that mandated the Turkish police to "monitor" every phone and online communication within the country.
However, the incident turned out to be a result of Sav's clumsiness. Islamist Vakit daily revealed a document of phone records that showed their correspondents listened the conversation between the main opposition party CHP's second man and a governor from Onder Sav's cell phone which he left open by mistake. Vakit's claims were later confirmed by Sav's GSM operator, Turkcell.
The records showed that Sav does not know how to use a cell phone, Mehmet Yilmaz, Hurriyet's columnist wrote on Wednesday. "The only thing that Sav and other officials could do is resign," he wrote in his column.
Another daily owned by a pro-AKP group, Star, dealt another blow to Sav when it published a document showing the CHP paid $3.5 million to Turkish TV channel, Kanalturk, which was the fiercest opponent of the ruling AKP, and later sold to another pro-AKP group in a controversial transaction.
The CHP paid $3.5 million for 40 percent share of the TV channel and Sav signed an agreement with the then owner of Kanalturk, Tuncay Ozkan. CHP said the contract was in line with the laws and the money was paid for the production of a documentary about the party. Ozkan denied the claims and threatened to sue Star.
CHP has long criticized the ruling AKP for creating its own media after the controversial sale of the liberal Sabah-ATV to Calik Group and its Qatari partner; and Kanalturk's sale to the Akin Group.