Erdogan ally quits after spat over prisoners

ANKARA: A founding member of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party resigned on Tuesday from the leader's advisory body after a spat over the release of prominent prisoners.

Former deputy prime minister Bulent Arinc set off political shock waves last week by calling for the release of civil society activist Osman Kavala and pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party's (HDP) former leader Selahattin Demirtas.

They have been in jail since 2017 and 2016 respectively in separate cases that drew global attention to Turkey's deteriorating human rights record under Erdogan.

Arinc said he was "shocked by the fact that (Kavala) is still under arrest," telling a nationally televised programme: "He must be released.

"When I read those indictments (about Kavala), I said even a child wouldn't write this."

Kavala was a businessman and activist branded by Erdogan as an agent of US financier George Soros.

The government accuses Demirtas of fomenting deadly 2014 protests in which Kurds took to the streets over Ankara's decision not to help stop Islamic State militants from attacking Kobane in northern Syria.

But Erdogan promised to push through judicial reform in a policy address earlier this month that followed the resignation of his powerful son-in-law Berat Albayrak as economy chief.

The Turkish leader's comments and Arinc's television appearance raised speculation that Kavala and Demirtas might soon walk out of jail.

Yet Erdogan distanced himself from Arinc's comments on Sunday, saying Turkey would never be "with the Kavalas of this world".

Arinc offered his resignation from the president's High Advisory Board in a statement on Twitter, saying: "It's obvious Turkey needs judicial and economic reform."

The presidency confirmed Erdogan had accepted Arinc's resignation.

Arinc was a founding member of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) but the two have clashed over the years.

In 2015, he commented that the AKP had lost its "we" spirit and turned into "I".