AKP MP who incited anti-Hürriyet protesters defends September attacks
ISTANBUL
Video footage released by private broadcaster CNN Türk has shown Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) Istanbul MP Abdurrahim Boynukalın defending the Sept. 6 and 8 attacks on daily Hürriyet during a meeting with AKP youth in the southern province of Mersin.
Boynukalın delivered a speech to the AKP youth in Mersin on Oct. 19, in a meeting he attended alongside Lütfi Elvan, an AKP Antalya deputy and former transportation minister, as well as local AKP politicians.
In his speech, Boynukalın argued that the attack against Hürriyet had lifted the newspaper’s “immunity.”
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Praising the violent protest for making headlines, Boynukalın urged the AKP members to take the streets more often.
“These guys [referring to Hürriyet] thought they could curse this country’s Islamic values and anybody else they wanted to curse at, and that no one would be able to touch them. Friends, the AKP youth lifted their immunity three weeks ago,” he said.
“The AKP youth had been criticized for losing its common cause, for not taking the streets and demonstrating. Look, our affair with Hürriyet was discussed for weeks,” he said. “We need to have self-confidence. We need to take action,” Boynukalın added.
In stark contrast to his previous statements, in which he argued that he went to Hürriyet’s headquarters to calm down the protesters, he thanked the AKP organization for their “support in lifting the immunity.”
“Feeling the support of our organization helped us in lifting this immunity. God bless you,” he said.
This is not the first instance in which Boynukalın has been seen uttering threats on video. Another video of the MP surfaced on Sept. 19, showing him expressing his regret that they “never beat up” Hürriyet journalists in the past.
Similarly, a third video published earlier showed Boynukalın vowing to “make Recep Tayyip Erdoğan the president” regardless of the result of the Nov. 1 election. There, he also described media organizations as “terrorists.”
