Main opposition CHP head Kılıçdaroğlu slams historians for ‘smearing Atatürk’

ANKARA

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has slammed controversial popular historians who recently claimed that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, had an affair with his adoptive daughter, Afet İnam. 

“The word ‘traitor’ would be very mild for them. They are not even human. Those who lack honor and pride cannot be called human. They sit on a TV show and smear Atatürk and his mother,” Kılıçdaroğlu said at his party’s parliamentary group meeting on May 9.

“I cannot digest the unfair smearing of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on some TV channels. I cannot accept some dishonorable people who have [a show called] ‘Derin Tarih’ [Deep History]. Their depth apparently stems from having the mind to smear Atatürk and his mother,” he added.

The CHP leader’s comments came after Mustafa Armağan, the host of a TV show called “Derin Tarih” aired on the station TVNET, claimed in a May 6 broadcast that Atatürk’s foster child, Afet İnan, was his illegitimate wife.
After the claims stirred outrage on social media, the Ankara Prosecutor’s Office filed an official complaint against Armağan, as well as commentators Süleyman Yeşilyurt and Yavuz Bahadır, for “defamation.”

Kılıçdaroğlu also slammed Hasan Akar, a religious commentator who posts videos online. Akar had recently raised eyebrows by claiming that Atatürk’s mother was a sex worker in Thessaloniki and Atatürk was an illegitimate child.