ANKARA (Reuters) ? Turkey's main opposition accused the prime minister on Tuesday of trying to tighten his grip on the security services with a proposed law that would curb the powers of the judiciary to investigate senior intelligence officials.
It was hastily drafted after prosecutors summoned Turkey's top spy last week and lawmakers from Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party pushed it through a parliamentary commission on Tuesday night. It will be put to a general assembly vote this week.
The law would mean top officials from Turkey's spy agency could not be questioned without the prime minister's permission.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party, said by limiting the powers of the state to investigate top spies, the prime minister would effectively be creating a "gang" answerable only to him.
"Will Tayyip Erdogan be given the power to establish a gang? Even if this gang betrays its country it will not be able to be tried," Kilicdaroglu said.
"The prime minister could say to his gang: 'Go kill the president'. Is this a possibility? It is a possibility."
Last week, state prosecutors asked the head of the National Intelligence Agency (MIT) and his predecessor to testify over secret links between the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the agency, which is controlled by Erdogan.
The summons of the head of MIT, Hakan Fidan, who is close to the prime minister, was a rare imposition on the powerful agency and has stirred speculation of a power struggle between Erdogan and elements in the judiciary and police.
MIT has rebuffed the summons and Fidan has failed to appear.
Devlet Bahceli, leader of Turkey's third party, the Nationalist Movement Party, said he would also oppose the bill.
"The head of MIT and officials should testify immediately. Certainly, it is the law that outlines the limits of the government's duties," he said.
The case over whether Fidan and others should be questioned has dominated Turkish media and television footage showed scenes of heated debates at the parliamentary commission.
Umit Boyner, chairwoman of the influential TUSIAD business association also voiced her concern. "We as ordinary citizens, are following with some horror and an increasing feeling of unease the power struggle within the state," she said.
The government says the MIT officials should not be summoned without the prime minister's permission for simply carrying out their public duty.
NATIONALIST WARNING
The prosecutors' investigation is focused on an organization called the Union of Kurdistan Communities, which the PKK is alleged to have established with the aim of creating its own political system in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
Hundreds of people have been arrested in relation to the investigation, including some 150 people during raids across Turkey on Monday. Prosecutors now say they have also uncovered evidence state officials aided the militant separatists.
The prosecutor who ordered their questioning has since been removed from the case and, on Tuesday, media reports said Turkey's High Council of Judges and Prosecutors were investigating him, saying he had abused his position and failed in his duty to inform his superiors about his actions.
Istanbul deputy chief prosecutor Fikret Secen has defended the investigation, saying that it was only directed at the actions of individual officials and not against government anti-terrorism policy.
Prosecutors are also believed to want to question MIT officials about secret talks they held in Oslo with PKK representatives. The contacts came to light last year through recordings on the Internet.
Some have interpreted the targeting of the MIT as a nationalist warning to Erdogan against seeking any negotiated settlement with the PKK. Erdogan is currently recovering from his second bout of intestinal surgery in three months.
Talks between the state and PKK were halted after Erdogan's AK Party won a third term in office last June with around 50 percent of the votes. The PKK has returned to fighting using northern Iraq as a refuge for operations in southeastern Turkey.
February 15 marks the anniversary of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan's capture in 1999 and officials say security forces are on high alert across Turkey fearing PKK attacks to mark the day.
Erdogan, who has Islamist roots but whose AK party includes centre-right and even strongly nationalist elements, has pressed reforms in Turkey that have shaken the political establishment since he was first elected in 2002. He has cut back the influence of the army and shaken up a conservative judiciary.
(Editing by Alison Williams)
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