Senior AKP official resigns over controversial remarks on republic

ANKARA

Mahir Ünal, deputy parliamentary group leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), has announced that he resigned from his job following reactions over his remarks that the Turkish culture and language were destroyed in the republican era.

“As of today, I have demanded my resignation from my position as the deputy parliamentary group leader,” Ünal said in a brief statement late on Oct. 31. Ünal is a senior AKP official who also had performed as the culture and tourism minister in the previous governments.

Ünal came to the center of reactions from the opposition parties as well as from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) after he claimed that the foundation of the republic has almost destroyed the Turkish culture and language. MHP Chairman Devlet Bahçeli, who is the main ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan under the People’s Alliance, has strongly slammed Ünal for degrading the republican values.

The AKP has announced that Özlem Zengin is now appointed as the deputy parliamentary group leader of the AKP.