Turkey’s opposition leader accuses corrupt businessmen of intimidation against him

Turkey's main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu on Tuesday said that corrupt businessmen who have enriched themselves enormously during the AKP (Justice and Development Party) government have waged an intimidation campaign against him ahead of a crucial election, but that he will stay the course despite the threats.

On Sunday, SADAT, a controversial private military company previously labeled an election threat by the CHP (Republican People's Party), aired a commercial on Turkish television station TV100 during the live broadcast of an interview by CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, showing images of armed men.

"This paramilitary crap is only part of the bigger picture. There is only one thing that is the root of everything. That's money! So much money that they can not get enough of. Money that was stolen from our people," Kilicdaroglu said in a brief address to his fellow deputies in parliament.

Kilicdaroglu said those who made lucrative deals with the government and stole $418 billion from the nation also wanted to talk to him and agree, but "he slammed the door in their faces, so they moved on to the next level."

Kilicdaroglu challenged all the mobsters, the paramilitaries and their proxies:

"You bastards, you hammerheads, you weasels, are you trying to scare me? I'd rather die standing than live on my knees in front of you!"