President warns Turkey against "WikiLeaks trap"

Turkish President Abdullah Gul called the release of the U.S. State Deparment cables by Wikileaks a trap, calling on the Turkish Public not to fall into it.

Appearing at a press conference Thursday upon his return from Kazakhstan, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said the secret cables released by Wikileaks should not occupy Turkish politics and consume the country's energy in vain.

Gul said the released cables contained the personal views of the U.S. diplomats about the officials of countries they served in. He said some of the cables were accurate noting however that the rest were very wrong and even ugly.

Whistle-Blowing website Wikileaks started publishing 251.287 Secret cables between U.S. State Department and U.S. Embassies around the world on Sunday, making the founder of the site Julian Assange one of the most wanted man in the world. Though only a small batch of cables were released so far, it created a "pandora's box" effect, and occupied top of the agenda around the world and created a global controversy.

U.S Embassy in Ankara, had the most cables coming from with 7,918 documents in the bulk of cables. The first documents released about Turkey contained some unpleasant remarks and allegations about top Turkish government officials including President Abdullah Gul and Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Wikileaks documents has been at the centre of public debate since Sunday. The newspapers carried the allegations to their first pages and TV channels gave wide coverage.

Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan who initially gave a cautious response by saying, "First, let them reveal what's in their hands," later rebuffed allegations and lashed out at the media and the opposition for bringing to the fore, what he said was unfounded claims.

Leader of main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Kemal Kilicdaroglu said the allegations were grave and urged Premier to make an explanation while Leader of the second opposition Nationalist Movement Party leader, Devlet Bahceli said they would not make U.S. allegations a matter of Turkish politics.


/World Bulletin/