Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that those who allegedly wiretapped his office were finally caught in Romania, after singing his favorite song during an award ceremony organized by Turkey's Roma community on Feb. 6, Hurriyet Daily News reported.
"Two of those who wiretapped my office have been caught in Romania. They had first fled to Croatia and then to Hungary. But now they are caught and I hope that they will be deported to Turkey soon," Erdogan told a group of NGO representatives at a dinner organized by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the western province of Bursa.
A prosecutor had issued search warrants for the police officers involved in the probe last June. Eleven officers, including Erdogan's former chief bodyguard, were then detained at their homes on June 17, while a local police chief, who is suspected of planting the bug, was not detained because he was out of the country at the time.
The wiretapping suspects who were detained in Romania on Feb. 4 are Sedat Zavar, former deputy head of technical staff at the Intelligence Directorate, and Enes Çiğci, a police chief, daily Hürriyet has learned.
"They are such a network," Erdogan said Feb. 6, referring to U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, his ally-turned-nemesis, and his followers in the bureaucracy whom Turkish President accuse of trying to topple the government.
"Now they start to threaten me and my family," Erdogan added, vowing to not bow down.
Before the dinner, Erdogan attended the "Great Roman" award ceremony organized by the members of the Roma community in Bursa.
While accepting the award, Erdogan said he grew up in Kasımpaşa, an Istanbul neighborhood which is home to many members of the Roma community. "I know the Roma culture," Erdogan said, before condemning racism, Islamophobia and discrimination.
"I am addressing to those who talk about women's rights. Why don't you raise your voice against the Jews who thank God in their prayers that they were not created as women? Was there any other understanding, a logic as demeaning for women as this one?"
Erdogan then sang his favorite song, "Beraber Yürüdük Biz Bu Yollarda" (We walked together on these roads) after the singer handed him the microphone.
"We walked together on these roads. We got wet together under the pouring rain. In all the songs I am listening to now, everything reminds me of you," the song goes.