AKP deputy vows to stage continued ‘protests’ outside media outlets

ISTANBUL

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Justice and Development Party (AKP) Istanbul deputy Abdülrahim Boynukalın, who was among the group of around 200 assailants who stormed daily Hürriyet’s building in Istanbul late Sept. 6, has vowed to stage “protests” outside buildings of media outlets if they continue to “whitewash violence with biased news reports.”

“If [those media organizations] express an attitude that whitewashes violence with biased reports, we will again stage protests in front of them,” the state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Boynukalın as saying on Sept. 8.

Boynukalın was prominent among the group that attacked daily Hürriyet’s building, hurling stones, according to a video shot via a live stream application used on mobile devices.

In the video, Boynukalın equates Hürriyet’s parent Doğan Group, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Fethullah Gülen movement as “terrorist organizations.

“With God’s permission, not only the Aydın Doğan media, but the entire HDP, PKK – all terrorist organizations – and particularly the terrorist organization of [Gülen] will get the hell out of here after we make you [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] the president.”

Hürriyet’s building was attacked by around 200 pro-government protesters late Sept. 6.

The group attacked security personnel at the outer gate of daily’s compound in the city’s Bağcılar district before forcing their way to the building’s door, which they pelted with stones. 

Protesters, who chanted pro-government slogans, retreated when police officers arrived at the scene.