Prime minister's Muğla visit prompts security lockdown

MUĞLA

The Prime Minister distributes chess kits to citizens in Muğla. Anadolu Agency

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan paid a visit to the southwestern province Muğla, as the governor’s office has forbade protests and meetings during his visit. 

“During our esteemed Prime minister’s visit to our province, to avoid provocative, illegal gatherings and preventing crime between Nov. 29 and Dec. 2 any kind of meetings, rallies, press releases, opening stands and tents are forbidden under the 5442 Law for Provincial Administration...” an official statement from Muğla’s Governor Office read. 

Mining workers in the city’s Yatağan, Yeniköy and Kemerköy towns have been holding protests during the last three months and they recently marched through the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) provincial office, according to the daily Cumhuriyet’s report. 

Under high security measures, Erdoğan held meetings and mass openings in the city over the weekend. Citizen Ayhan Karahan, who intended to protest Erdoğan with a banner reading “Sultan, get out,” was detained before accomplishing the protest. 

Karahan, who is the founder of the “Bodrum Citizen Initiative,” protested the U.S. envoy to Ankara Francis Joseph Ricciardone in August 2011. Karahan was detained as he was walking around Atapark, close to Erdoğan’s meeting area, by police with his banner. 

Erdoğan in his speech warned citizens against the “interest lobby,” saying to be keen about using credit cards.

During the previous day in Muğla, he said the government is caught up in a struggle against groups who try to “promote their own interests,” in an apparent implicit reference to the Gülen movement’s outcry on the plan to scrap the test prep schools under a new bill on education.

“It is you, the people, and not power groups inside or outside [Turkey], other countries or circles, who will determine the direction of this country,” Erdoğan said.