Main opposition MP takes Kuwaiti beating incident to Parliament

Oya Armutçu ANKARA

The beaten Karakuş, who is the son-in-law of Turkish Air Force General Akın Öztürk, received a medical report in which doctors determined that he could not work for 20 days.

Turkey’s main opposition has questioned the Foreign Ministry over its response to Kuwait’s envoy, after the latter warned that deporting a Kuwaiti diplomat who beat up a Turkish pilot prior to a court ruling would negatively affect Kuwaiti investments in Turkey.

“How can the ambassador of Kuwait threaten Turkey while you have frequently been urging [countries] not to test our patience?” Umut Oran, a deputy from the ranks of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), asked Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu in a parliamentary question.

Oran issued the question after Kuwaiti Ambassador Abdullah Abdulaziz al-Duwaikh defended the Kuwaiti diplomat and other embassy staff after they allegedly beat a Turkish pilot in a road rage incident.

“If anybody hears that this man is deported without a court decision, then they will be afraid and leave Turkey because they won’t trust Turkey after this incident. So it will affect everything,” al-Duwaikh said in an interview with the Hürriyet Daily News Sept. 15.

“Isn’t the statement of the Kuwaiti ambassador a threat to Turkey?” Oran asked Davutoğlu.

Meanwhile, the Ankara Public Prosecutors’ Office has demanded the arrest of a Kuwaiti diplomat’s driver, appealing to a court decision that released him following an assault of a Turkish pilot in Ankara.

Lt. Col. Hakan Karakuş, a pilot working for NATO, was allegedly beaten by Kuwaiti Embassy Attaché Amad Ali Almohaid and his driver after a quarrel in traffic. The driver, identified only as Salahaddin A., was sent to the courthouse following the incident, on charges of “deliberately injuring someone.” He was later released on probation.

Kuwaiti ambassador says he did not intend to threaten investment

Meanwhile, Ambassador al-Duwaikh clarified his remarks to the Daily News, saying Kuwait is “number one” in investments in Turkey and believes in the Turkish economy.

He again stressed that a Turkish court decision must prove the Kuwaiti diplomat guilty before the embassy decides to send him back to his country. 

“My language was not threatening. We are proud of our investments in Turkey. We trust Turkey’s economy,” the envoy said yesterday.