Turkish minister files case against deputy for verbal attack

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

The AKP deputies try to raid the stand during the speech of Kamer Genç (L). AA photo

Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Şahin has filed a suit against Republican People’s Party (CHP) Tunceli deputy Kamer Genç for a verbal attack during a parliamentary session April 25, as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also raised his voice against the Genç.

“If Atatürk had not established this republic, would you occupy your position? What country’s citizen would you be? What number would you be among the wives of a sheik?” Genç told Şahin.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is the founding father of the modern Turkish Republic.

Şahin’s lawyer, Ali Özkaya, mentioned in the file that Şahin was married with two children and was a “conservative, democrat, enlightened Turkish woman.”

The compensation demand stands at 100,000 Turkish Liras; Şahin has said she will put any compensation money toward a project at her ministry.

Özkaya also said Genç’s question to Şahin came at a session during which parliamentarians were discussing a shift in legal expressions used for people with disabilities and “contradicted the philosophy of the related code.”

Genç demonstrated that he had no respect for a “legitimate family structure and posed a bad example for small children and youth, especially with his style of expression and tone.”

Erdoğan joined the criticism against Genç, saying, “I cannot call that person a deputy or a man,” during his address to his ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) parliamentary group today.

“[Genç] has attacked one of our ministers, a lady, a wife and a mother with unmentionable expressions,” he said.