‘Dogs of Erdoğan’s palace need rabies vaccine,’ nationalist MHP says

ISTANBUL

HÜRRİYET photo

Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has slammed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s aides with a stinging tweet, urging “rabies vaccinations” for all of them except one.

“It is our advice to the AK [White] palace,” the MHP’s official Twitter account said on Aug. 17, referring to the presidential complex in Ankara by linking it to the Justice and Development Party (the AKP or AK Party). 

“[The palace] should vaccinate all its dogs for rabies. Aydın Ünal, on the other hand, should be quarantined because vaccination would not help him,” the tweet added, singling out Erdoğan’s speechwriter and one of his closest aides.

Aydın Ünal had resigned as Erdoğan’s chief advisor in January for a nomination as an AKP deputy candidate in the June 7 parliamentary election. He was elected, but the AKP lost its single party majority in parliament.

Hours before the MHP’s stinging Twitter criticism, Ünal had slammed the party chair, Devlet Bahçeli, for “insulting” Erdoğan and his family. The AKP deputy had said Bahçeli “would be forced to lick the foam coming out of his mouth as he speaks.”