Southeast Turkey women registered as AKP members without consent
Two women in the Haliliye district of Turkey's southeastern Şanlıurfa province were registered as members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) without their knowledge, a relative said. “My mother and sister-in-law said that they did not give their identity information to anyone. My mother does not know Turkish, and she is not able to read or write," the son said.
Duvar English
Two women in the Haliliye district of Turkey's southeastern Şanlıurfa province were registered as members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) without their knowledge, a relative said.
Mehmet Yusuf Çalı said that his 65-year old mother Fehime Çalı and his sister-in-law Nursel Çalı both received congratulatory phone calls informing them that they were now AKP members.
“My mother and sister-in-law said that they did not give their identity information to anyone. My mother does not know Turkish, and she is not able to read or write. My mother and sister-in-law were made to be AKP members without their consent," Çalı said, adding that his mother became angry after the phone call and said that a crime had been committed.
Çalı said that his family would be filing a criminal complaint over the matter.
Fake membership software used by the AKP has emerged on the agenda before. In 2012, in a campaign launched throughout Turkey, the AKP İzmir Provincial organization, in order to meet the quota of 25 percent of voters, became the 5th highest province out of 81 provinces nationwide in terms of new registered members.
Ruling AKP uses aid recipients' personal info to enroll them as membersİzmir traditionally votes in the majority for the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).
It was alleged that in the İzmir districts of Karabağlar and Konak, which host large hospitals, district party authorities recruited members from the patient records in these areas.