Under mounting public pressure for his resignation, Turkey’s Energy Minister Cumhur Ersumer gave up resistance, refuted all charges levied on him and quit, reported the Turkish Daily News on Saturday.
Refuting at a 40-minute press conference all charges he was implicated of in a State Security Court (DGM) indictment over alleged corruption in energy tenders, Ersumer announced that he had submitted his resignation to the Motherland Party (ANAP) leader and Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz because under prevailing conditions it would be impossible for him to continue on as a cabinet member.
"It is very difficult from now on to carry on my duties," Ersumer told a press conference at the parliament, said the paper.
Minutes after Ersumer's press conference ended, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit issued a written statement disclosing that he has accepted the resignation of the energy minister.
Ecevit thanked Ersumer "for his service at the ministry."
"I wish him success in his future work," Ecevit said in his written statement, cited by the paper.
Ersumer's resignation and Ecevit's disclosure that the resignation was accepted capped a series of developments on Friday which started in the early hours of the morning with a leaders' summit.
Ecevit met with coalition partners Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Deputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahceli and Yilmaz on Friday morning to discuss the developments.
After several hours of discussions among the three leaders, they apparently reached an understanding that Ersumer ought to resign.
The controversy over Ersumer was hampering prospects of a cabinet reshuffle for some time and according to many diplomatic observers, the resignation of the minister may pave a radical change in the cabinet soon, said the paper.
The three-way coalition government has been under public pressure for some time to reduce Cabinet seats from the current 43 to 20-25.
At his press conference, Ersumer denied allegations against him.
He said all allegations were baseless and largely depended on reports of an expert who wrote him a letter earlier and underlined his opposition to a liberal economy and privatization and testimonies of some of the former top executives of the ministry he had removed from office. He accused those former top energy executives, who now face charges of corruption, bribery and misuse of office, of bearing a grudge against him.
"I very much regret that I have been targeted by such baseless accusations ... In particular (they) picked out three or four projects while there are more than 300 projects handled by my ministry," Ersumer said, denying any wrongdoing.
Opposition parties, newspaper editorials and even members of Ersumer's coalition government have been demanding that he step down since DGM Prosecutor Talat Salk filed the so-called Operation White Energy indictment that included charges against top officials within his ministry and businessmen who did work with his ministry or the state-owned electric company, according to the paper.
The officials and businessmen have been accused of corruption over the allocation of state tenders and of taking bribes.
Suspects and witnesses cited in that indictment accused Ersumer of illegally intervening in energy tenders and pushing government officials to allocate millions of dollars worth of state contracts to certain companies whose owners are also facing charges.
According to the paper, the news of resignation of Ersumer was hailed by the parliamentary opposition parties as well as by the business community.
The Islamist main opposition Virtue Party which had filed a parliamentary probe motion against Ersumer and the True Path Party (DYP) which had presented a censure motion against the controversial minister said they were satisfied with the minister's resignation but a parliamentary probe should be launched against him.
The Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (TUSIAD), who have been calling for Ersumer's resignation and a radical reshuffle in the cabinet, said the resignation of Ersumer was a right step and demonstrated that the minister had acted with political responsibility – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
