İYİ Party leader thanks Erdoğan for quick action on protestors
ANKARA
İYİ (Good) Party Chair Meral Akşener has thanked President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu for their quick action against a group of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) followers who held a midnight protest in front of her house last week.
“Such a demonstration in front of the house of a political party leader, such ugliness has never been observed until today. I find this very meaningful. I thank Mr. President, Mr. Interior Minister, Mr. [Istanbul] Governor and Mr. Chief of Police for their stance,” Akşener told reporters over the weekend.
“I have not filed any complaints about these protestors because they were instructed to do so. Who needs to be probed are the ones who instructed them,” she said.
Following a quarrel between Akşener and MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli, a group of MHP members gathered in front of her house in Istanbul’s Üsküdar district and chanted slogans late on Oct. 4.
Video footage of Akşener showed her reacting to the protesters from her window. “Come and shoot me if you are man enough! Shame on you!” she said.
Eleven people were detained by the police over charges of “unauthorized demonstration” and “threatening” as part of the investigation launched by the Istanbul Governor’s Office into the incident, following an instruction from the Interior Ministry.
The MHP fired the party’s Üsküdar district head and other local grassroots organization managers after the incident.
AKP: Unacceptable
Ömer Çelik, the spokesperson of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) stressed that no political dispute between politicians could legitimize violent acts while recalling the ongoing legal procedure against the perpetrators of the incident.
“No one can act like this against a party leader or against a citizen, especially against a woman. Those who went there have issued threats and harassment. Everything will be done within the bounds of law,” Çelik told reporters in the Kızılcahamam province of Ankara on Oct. 6.
