Man with gun detained after trying to approach Turkish PM Erdoğan

SAMSUN – Cihan News Agency

AA Photo

A man carrying a gun has been detained after trying to approach Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the Black Sea province of Samsun.

Erdoğan arrived in Canikli district for the opening ceremony of new municipality service building and the Adnan Menderes Democracy Square on July 6.

When he got off the official bus, an unknown person approached him and joined lawmakers of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) who were part of the official visiting group.

A bodyguard immediately removed the man from the crowd after realizing he had a gun.

He was detained by police when it was understood he was not a policeman or an officer.

Erdoğan left the scene and headed to Tekkeköy district without realizing the incident.

Erdoğan vows to be an active president

Erdoğan again stressed that he would continue being an “active political figure” if he wins the Aug. 10 election.

“Some say, ‘prime minister, please don’t leave us.’ That will not happen,” he said during his speech in Samsun’s Tekkeköy district on July 6. “We don’t see the presidency as a chair of, ‘Let’s go and have a rest, and participate in a few meetings.’ We will follow Tekkeköy’s roads, Istanbul’s bridge and underwater tunnels, and third airports.”

He also attended another rally in eastern province of Erzurum on July 6.

Erdoğan’s selection of Samsun and Erzurum as the first locations for rallies was laden with symbolism. Samsun is the city where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk started Turkey’s independence war in 1919, while Erzurum is where a crucial congress on the road to independence was made later the same year.

“We are going on a new historic journey from Samsun. We are taking the first big step in Samsun, the city of big beginnings. Gazi Mustafa Kemal took the first step of the War of Independence here. We are also starting the new Turkey’s presidential campaign from Samsun,” Erdoğan said.