Main opposition CHP inspects party member mayor for insulting colleague
ANKARA
The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has launched an inspection into its fellow Çanakkale Mayor Ülgür Gökhan over his behavior against a city council member from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on Oct. 4.
The debate between the mayor and Tülay Ömercioğlu, a city council deputy chair of the AKP, made it to headlines on Oct. 5.
“’You can speak if you ask for permission,’ [Gökhan] told her. The AKP member brought her party’s agenda to the table afterwards. Then the mayor said this was not the right place to discuss party politics,” CHP lawmaker Seyit Torun said in statement on Oct. 6.
While Torun, who said Gökhan was known for his chivalry, argued the party did not find any criminal elements in Gökhan’s order upon the inspection and examination of the camera records, the AKP has a different view.
İlknur İnceöz, a deputy chair of the AKP group in parliament, demanded an apology from Gökhan on behalf of the AKP and all women, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
“He contradicted his motto of calling Çanakkale ‘a city of peace, of liberties’ by attempting to cut off my microphone. When I tried to continue, he cut my mic off. This is an insult. Mayor Gökhan has insulted me,” Ömercioğlu told reporters on Oct. 5.
AKP members objected to attending the second part of the meeting and the incident became a nationwide subject of discussion overnight.
No party’s internal affairs can be discussed in the city council, Gökhan said in an interview to Anadolu Agency.
“I asked her nicely and when she insisted, I cut off her microphone,” Gökhan added.
“He called in to a morning show we were on today and apologized for what was done,” Ömercioğlu said on Oct. 6.
“This shows he has understood his mistake,” the AKP lawmaker added.
The AKP will file “a compensation lawsuit worth one Turkish Lira” against Gökhan as a symbol of condemning the behavior, the ruling party’s Bülent Turan said while addressing lawmakers in Ankara