AKP to investigate deputy involved in police scandal

ANKARA

What the police chief did is officiousness, cumbersomeness, Deputy PM Bülent Arınç says regarding a recent incident in which the son of an AKP deputy lines up of police officers after a dispute.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is expected to investigate its Hatay deputy, Hacı Bayram Türkoğlu, whose son held a lineup of police officers after a dispute with local law enforcement. 
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ordered the appropriate party bodies to investigate the incident in depth and report back to the party during yesterday’s Central Decision Administration Board (MKYK) meeting. Türkoğlu is likely to be sent to the AKP disciplinary committee. 

Türkoğlu’s son and a friend complained about policemen with whom they had a dispute in Hatay last month. The local police chief invited Türkoğlu’s son to the police station to identify the police officers. The release of a video of the incident has sparked harsh reactions across the country. 

“What the police chief did is officiousness, cumbersomeness. This is inappropriate behavior,” Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç told reporters late Monday, after the weekly Cabinet meeting. “To line up police as if they were criminals and ask him to identify the officer is not appropriate. This is wrong and humiliating.” 

Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin and Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin had informed the Cabinet about the event, Arınç said. Türkoğlu will be brought before the party’s disciplinary committee, Arınç said, similarly to the case of former deputy Feyzi İşbaşaran, who was caught by police driving under the influence of alcohol and was forced to resign from the party when he was sent before the committee. 
Arınç played down the tension that has arisen between Sunni and Alevi groups in Malatya in recent days, and asked that it not be exaggerated. “There is not even a spark to talk about an Alevi-Sunni clash. But our security forces take this event seriously, and are taking all necessary precautions to prevent similar events,” Arınç said. 

Regarding the recent incident in Malatya, Arınç explained, a family had hit a drummer, and the drummer had called his friends to take revenge on the family. 

“It was all just a fight that grew [out of control]. It is all calm now,” Arınç said. Some people did not want to solve the problem, he said. “Some media outlets mentioned the possible lynching of Alevis. Media reports are the worst part of the story.” 

Stones were thrown at the home of an Alevi family, and their stables were burned down by an angry mob on July 29, after the family allegedly told a Ramadan drummer not to wake them for sahur, the meal before sunrise. Members of the Evli family in the village of Sürgü in southeastern Malatya province had allegedly asked the drummer not to drum in front of their home the night of July 28, as they were not fasting and had to work early in the morning. The two sides quarreled after the drummer rejected the family’s request.