Burhan Kuzu, a professor of constitutional law who served in the Turkish Parliament for three terms from the ranks of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), died of the novel coronavirus on Sunday, according to a statement from a private hospital in İstanbul.
Kuzu, 65, was being treated due to COVID-19, at the Medipol Mega University Hospital in İstanbul, for two weeks.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and many leading figures of the AKP issued messages of condolence following the death of Kuzu.
On social media many shared former messages of Kuzu, who was an active Twitter user, questioning the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a tweet on March 23, he wrote: “Ebola [virus] claimed 13,000 lives in 1976, Sars claimed 8,000 lives in 2002, Mers claimed 858 lives in 2012, swine flu claimed 8,238 lives in 2009. In fact the number of the people who were infected with these viruses and died of them are more than those who have been infected and died of COVID-19. It [corona virus] spreads more quickly but it is less lethal. Then why is the world on tenterhooks? Is there anything else other than the exaggeration of the social media?”
Kuzu, who was also an advisor to President Erdoğan, was among the leading architects of Turkey’s transition from the parliamentary system into the presidential system of governance, which granted Erdoğan vast powers.
Turkey switched to the presidential system of governance thanks to a constitutional reform package that was approved by the public in a referendum in April 2017. Erdoğan was elected for a second term as president and for the first time under the new system in an election in June 2018.
The late politician recently came to the public attention in Turkey when the chief public prosecutor’s office in İstanbul launched an investigation in February into him due to his alleged role in the release of an Iranian drug lord from pre-trial detention in Turkey in 2018.
Kuzu, who allegedly pressured a judge to have drug lord Naci Sherifi Zindashti released from jail pending trial, was being accused of using his political power to influence the course of a judicial proceeding.
At the time Kuzu claimed that he did not know Zindashti, but later a photo emerged showing Kuzu and Zindashti at a table having dinner.
The post Former AKP heavyweight dies of COVID-19 appeared first on Turkish Minute.
from Turkish Minute https://www.turkishminute.com/2020/11/02/former-akp-heavyweight-dies-of-covid-19/
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