The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.
London / AFP
Anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks has released nearly 300,000 emails linked to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AKP party, with Turkey immediately blocking access on Wednesday.
WikiLeaks said the emails came from the party’s web domain akparti.org.tr and mainly related to world affairs and not “the most sensitive internal matters”.
It said the emails, which date between 2010 and July 6 this year, were obtained before the attempted coup of July 16.
“WikiLeaks has moved forward its publication schedule in response to the government’s post-coup purges,” the transparency website said in a statement.
The source of the emails “is not connected, in any way, to the elements behind the attempted coup, or to a rival political party or state”, it said.
A Turkish official said the WikiLeaks website was being blocked “due to violation of privacy and publication of illegally obtained data”.
The coup represented the most serious threat to Erdogan’s 13-year domination of Turkey and the president has said he came within 15 minutes of being killed or kidnapped by the plotters before escaping.