Erdoğan’s son shoots arrows in Ottoman attire, slams HDP

GAZİANTEP

DHA Photo

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son has targeted Turkey’s Kurdish problem-based Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) hours after shooting arrows in an Ottoman costume.

“It is a party of purple, green and pink. They have people of all colors, including an imam, a homosexual and a Yezidi. I don’t find this combination odd, but I find it strange that they say something in the west and some other thing in the east,” Bilal Erdoğan said, while visiting the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) provincial office in the southeastern province of Gaziantep on May 31.

Hours before his Gaziantep tour, Bilal Erdoğan was in the neighboring province of Kahramanmaraş, where he attended the International Festival for Traditional Turkish Games. 

“Young people who shoot an arrow should say ‘O God,’ thinking of ways to earn God’s consent. That’s why our sports are more than sports, being methods of self-discipline,” he said. 

Besides Bilal Erdoğan, AKP parliamentary group deputy chair Mahir Ünal and Kahramanmaraş Governor Mustafa Hakan Güvençer were also in attendance, wearing Ottoman kaftans and turbans.

President Erdoğan has triggered debate for his involvement in the AKP’s campaign ahead of the June 7 general elections, in spite of his office’s non-partisan position according to the constitution. The role of unelected governors in AKP-related events has also been criticized.

Before his son, Erdoğan himself had slammed the HDP for nominating a homosexual deputy candidate from a broadly liberal western province and an imam from a largely conservative southeastern province.