ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — One of the top advisors to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan resigned on Tuesday after being slammed by the leader for his call to release jailed Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas and Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala. Bulent Arinc, former speaker of parliament and deputy prime minister, said in a statement on Tuesday he has resigned from his position on the Turkish presidency’s High Advisory Board. He claimed that his comments to Turkish broadcaster Haberturk on Thursday have been misused by some people. Arinc was referring to statements he made about Erdogan’s newly-introduced economic and legal “reforms” on the broadcaster, during which he also said that Demirtas and Kavala should not be kept in prison. “I decided that it would be more appropriate for me to leave my position as a member of the High Advisory Board, as I was concerned that my speech would hinder the reform process as it was shifted to different grounds by people,” he said in the statement, adding that Erdogan approved the resignation - something later confirmed by the Turkish Presidency. “The main focus of my comments were about the subject of judicial reforms,” said Arinc in his resignation announcement, adding that he did not want to name any jailed people in his discussion with other guests of the program, but the host of the program insisted. “Unfortunately, my ideas about the universal law, justice and issues of the judiciary [system] were overshadowed by these names and the essence of the issues were missed.” Arinc is also a co-founder of Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). He has been a long-time colleague to the President, reaching back to the early 2000s. The resigned advisor told Haberturk that he had read Demirtas’ 'Devran', a collection of short stories written in jail, during the coronavirus lockdown earlier this year. Demirtas was detained in November 2016 along with a number of other party officials and parliamentarians for their alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), deemed a terrorist organization by Ankara. He faces up to 142 years in jail. “Selahattin Demirtas has been in jail for three to four years. The arrest should not be turned into a punishment,” said Arinc. He also called for the release of Kavala, imprisoned since 2017 without ever having been convicted of a crime. “I am astonished that Kavala is still jailed. He should not be jailed,” Arinc said. The politician’s comments seemingly angered Erdogan, who on Sunday said: “Where we stand is clear. There are no changes in our course,” dismissing the calls to release Kavala and Demirtas. "We see that trouble is being tried to be caused by using our emphasis on our reform agenda as an excuse through some personal statements that are absolutely not related to us. No one's personal statements can be linked to our government and party even if we worked together in the past," Erdogan added to members of the AKP. The next day, Arinc told Posta news outlet that he was offended by Erdogan’s comments. “I am an emotional person. Yesterday's speech has offended me a lot. The president made a very harsh speech,” he said, denying rumours that he had resigned. He said he would later speak to Erdogan and discuss the subject with him, reported Duvar. AKP’s spokesperson Omer Celik was the first official close to Erdogan to comment on the resignation. He slammed Arinc’s call for the release of Demirtas and Kavala. “It is wrong to request democracy from an elected president,” he said.
