Main opposition CHP’s new Istanbul head apologizes over 'insulting tweet'

ANKARA

Canan Kaftancıoğlu, the newly elected Istanbul chair of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), has apologized to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for sharing a picture that includes an open insult to the president’s mother during the 2013 Gezi protests.

“I sincerely apologize to Erdoğan,” Kaftancıoğlu told reporters on Jan. 17 during the handover ceremony at the CHP’s Istanbul headquarters. Kaftancıoğlu was elected on Jan. 14 as the main opposition’s new Istanbul head. Her social media messages, which cover various issues, have elicited harsh reactions from Erdoğan.

One such message was the picture featuring a graffiti with an open insult to President Erdoğan’s mother during the massive Gezi protests of 2013.

“We are all human beings and we make mistakes. Motherhood is blessed and I don’t condone insulting mothers,” Kaftancıoğlu said.

President Erdoğan had slammed Kaftancıoğlu on Jan. 16 over her Twitter posts, stating that the posts amount to “enmity of the nation.”

“To insult our nation’s values, history and culture is not politics. Its name can only be enmity of the nation,” Erdoğan said.

On the same day of her election, a “terror propaganda” investigation was opened against Kaftancıoğlu, with the focus on a number of social media posts that show her as “carrying out propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) and Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front (DHKP-C).”

‘Istanbul march begins’

During the handover ceremony, Kaftancıoğlu said “the big Istanbul march” is now beginning to win local elections in March 2019.

“We will launch our march from 39 Istanbul districts. That’s why they are scared. They are trying to direct the CHP but the CHP was founded to fight imperialism,” she said.