In a speech he made yesterday in the parliament, the HDP’s representative on the Supreme Election Council (SEC), Mehmet Rüştü Tiryaki, set out item by item how the AKP had obtained personal data relating to Istanbul voters and had obtained data extending to people’s families together with the Ministries of Justice, Health and the Interior. Tiryaki stated, “You obtained the names of polling station committee members, the names of more than 9,000 polling station committee members, you obtained their Republic of Turkey identification numbers, you obtained information about where they work from the Social Security Institution and from the Social Security Institution for the Self-Employed, you obtained all data and you used all the resources of the state. While it is impossible for this to be divulged to anybody, you used the Interior Ministry like your own subsidiary company and obtained all data.”
The speech as recorded in parliamentary minutes is as follows:
MEHMET RÜŞTÜ TİRYAKİ – What do you say? You say, “Because they stole it.” I will now explain to you who stole what. When you applied for the annulment of the elections, you said, “Twenty thousand mentally handicapped voted.”
RECEP ÖZEL (Isparta) – We said, “It was possible they voted.”
MEHMET RÜŞTÜ TİRYAKİ (Continuing) – You didn’t say that, Mr Özel. We were at the same meeting.
RECEP ÖZEL (Isparta) – We said that. We said that.
MEHMET RÜŞTÜ TİRYAKİ (Continuing) – You said, “Voted,” because if there were a “possibility” you wouldn’t say that because there would be no evidence. We were at the same meeting.
LÜTFÜ TÜRKKAN (Kocaeli) – Recep lies now and again, I know.
MEHMET RÜŞTÜ TİRYAKİ (Continuing) – I’m now going to read you a statutory article. Article 6 of the Personal Data Protection Law: “Data concerning peoples’ race, ethnic origin, political thoughts, philosophical belief, religion, sect or other faiths, dress, association, foundation or trade union membership, health, sex life, penal convictions and security measures along with their biometric and genetic data are personal data of a private nature. It is forbidden for personal data of a private nature to be processed without the express consent of the concerned party.” You stole personal data from the Ministry of Health. There’s somebody who stole: it’s you. (Applause from the HDP and CHP benches.) You obtained the data of 20,000 mentally handicapped people in an unlawful manner from the Ministry of Health.
Can I, as Mehmet Tiryaki, as a lawyer, as a member of parliament, go and get the list of the mentally handicapped in any province of Turkey if I ask? I cannot. Why? It’s in breach of the Personal Data Protection Law. Well, you, in collaboration with the Health Ministry, stole this data and committed a crime. (Applause from the HDP and CHP benches.) You cannot obtain this data, you cannot obtain this data, nobody can divulge it to you.
ALİ ÖZKAYA (Afyonkarahisar) – The article continues, it continues.
RECEP ÖZEL (Isparta) – But people who voted emerged from among them, people who voted emerged.
MEHMET RÜŞTÜ TİRYAKİ (Continuing) – You said something else.
ALİ ÖZKAYA (Afyonkarahisar) – No, you are misreading the law.
MEHMET RÜŞTÜ TİRYAKİ (Continuing) – I’m continuing.
ALİ ÖZKAYA (Afyonkarahisar) – There are exclusionary articles.
MEHMET RÜŞTÜ TİRYAKİ (Continuing) – You said, “There are 5,000 interdicted, 5,000 interdicted, 5,000 or so interdicted.” Then you gave another list, the list of the 5,515 indicted people. You said, “10,000 interdicted people voted.” You obtained the Republic of Turkey identification numbers of these interdicted people, which court ordered the interdiction and when these attained finality in full from the Ministry of Justice; you stole them! You obtained personal data once more. (Applause from the HDP and CHP benches.) There’s somebody who stole: it’s you!
RECEP ÖZEL (Isparta) – Get away with you!
MEHMET RÜŞTÜ TİRYAKİ (Continuing) – You also stole other things, too. What did you steal? You got the list of polling station committee chairs. Now, can any political party get the list of polling station committee chairs from sub-provincial electoral boards?
ALİ ÖZKAYA (Afyonkarahisar) – The CHP got it, the Pendik sub-provincial chairship…
MEHMET RÜŞTÜ TİRYAKİ (Continuing) – They cannot, they cannot!
ALİ ÖZKAYA (Afyonkarahisar) – … sent a message.
MEHMET RÜŞTÜ TİRYAKİ (Continuing) – They cannot. They cannot get it from sub-provincial election boards. You obtained the list of all polling station committee chairs and the chairs of 31 polling stations in Istanbul; you obtained all data relating to them from the Interior Ministry; I will now say what data you obtained.
You obtained the names of polling station committee members, the names of more than 9,000 polling station committee members, you obtained their Republic of Turkey identification numbers, you obtained information about where they work from the Social Security Institution and from the Social Security Institution for the Self-Employed, you obtained all data and you used all the resources of the state. While it is impossible for this to be divulged to anybody, you used the Interior Ministry like your own subsidiary company and obtained all data. You obtained even more things. You obtained information about their families. It is in your submissions; it is annexed to the submission that you brought by the suitcase. It is stated in your submissions, it is stated, “This polling station chair’s in-law was picked up in connection with the Fetullahist Terrorist Organization and his brother-in-law was prosecuted in connection with the Fetullahist Terrorist Organization.” What does this mean? You didn’t just obtain data about polling station committee chairs and polling station committee members, but about their lineages aged seven to seventy from the Interior Ministry. Well, this is theft. You stole personal data and then you objected. If there is unlawfulness, the greatest unlawfulness is this.
Now I’ll tell you something else. What did you say, assembling these together? You said, “Something went on there and that’s why it was annulled.” I’ll tell you something. Let the Interior Ministry, the Health Ministry and the Social Security Institution Directorate and other ministries give the same data concerning 81 provinces and 900 sub-provinces – there are 600 bright members of parliament here – let them give these to any one of them and if they don’t draft the same submission that you did within a week, I know nothing. I say I’ll give up politics, I’ll give up being a lawyer, too, and I’ll give up being a member of parliament, as well.
(Translated by Tim Drayton)
Bülent Falakaoğlu
Hakkı Özdal
