AKP MP’s praise of Hürriyet attack to be used as evidence

Arda Akın – ISTANBUL

Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy Abdurrahim Boynukalın’s latest remarks from Oct. 19, in which he praised the Sept. 6 attack on daily Hürriyet’s headquarters in Istanbul, will be used as evidence in the criminal complaint previously filed into his speech on Sept. 6 alongside the perpetrators of the attack, Hürriyet has reported.

The complaint was filed against Boynukalın into his Sept. 6 speech on charges of “defamation,” “threatening” and “praising crime and criminal activity,” said Başak Doker Baylan, the legal affairs director for the Doğan Group, the owner of Hürriyet. 

Boynukalın’s remarks on Oct. 19 in the southern province of Mersin clearly showed the Sept. 6 attack on Hürriyet was a deliberate act and planned in advance, Baylan said, adding the remarks containing “intentional incitation of criminal activity” would be submitted to the chief public prosecutor’s office in Istanbul’s Bakırköy district, where the criminal complaint has been filed.


According to recent video footage released by private broadcaster CNNTürk, Boynukalın said in an AKP meeting in Mersin on Oct. 19 that young members of the AKP had lifted Hürriyet’s immunity, praising the two attacks on Hürriyet’s headquarters in less than 48 hours in early September. 

“These guys [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 to 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, urging AKP members to take to the streets more often.

In stark contrast to his previous statements, in which he argued he went to Hürriyet’s headquarters to calm down the protesters, he thanked the AKP organization for their “support in lifting the immunity.”

Similarly, a third video published earlier showed Boynukalın vowing to “make [current President] Recep Tayyip Erdoğan the president” regardless of the result of the Nov. 1 election. He also described media organizations as “terrorists” in the video.