Nationalist Movement Party accuses PM Erdoğan of not being sorry for killing of slain Gezi victim

ANKARA

A protester wearing a mask depicting Ethem Sarisülük joins a rally in front of a court house in Ankara September 23, 2013. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has criticized the government for making sectarian politics and accused Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of not being sorry for the killing of Ethem Sarısülük, a protester known to be leftist who was shot dead by a police officer in Ankara’s Güvenpark during the Gezi Park protests.

“You cry for Esma from Egypt, but you won’t cry for Ethem Sarısülük who was killed by police who say they were taking order from you. Should he be from abroad for you to be sorry?” Tuğrul Türkeş, deputy chairman of the MHP told reporters Sept.26 at a press briefing.

Erdoğan could not help himself from crying for Esma, who was killed in clashes during the Egyptian army’s intervention against Muslim Brotherhood supporters, but he was sorry for the killing of a Turkish citizen who was merely using his democratic right of protest, Türkeş said.

“It’s a double standard. It means the issue is not about conscience, but an ideological approach,” he added.

The Gezi protests demonstrated that the Justice and Development Party (AKP), like its other brothers, could tolerate writers, artists or minorities, and that they showed hostility toward women, Türkeş said.