ANKARA, December 16 /TASS/. The Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, has launched an investigation against Turkish MP Eren Erdem, a member of Turkey’s leading opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), a source at Erdem’s secretariat in Turkish parliament confirmed to TASS without providing any additional information.

According to Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, the case was opened after Erdem’s recent interview with the Russia Today (RT) television channel in which he said that the Islamic State jihadists in Syria had received materials for making deadly sarin gas from Turkey in 2013. Erdem said the Turkish authorities had allegedly known about that. He added he had other evidence to prove Turkey’s complicity to and awareness that chemical weapon materials had been delivered to terrorists in Syria.

Ankara prosecutors decided to initiate criminal proceedings against Erdem upon receiving a request from a resident of the town of Malatya to arrest the deputy for treason. Though Erdem certainly has his deputy immunity, the Turkish parliament can still vote for stripping him of his parliamentary immunity in exceptional circumstances.