Video showing Erdoğan giving cucumber to dog goes viral

ANKARA

A video showing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan giving a piece of cucumber to a small-sized dog on a leash surfaced after his son-in-law and Energy Minister Berat Albayrak shared the footage on social media on June 17.

“A sweet moment from my wife Esra’s phone from April 2017,” the minister said in a tweet.

“When his son is not home, our president stops by to see Çiko. When he noticed that the cucumber was cold, [Erdoğan] warms it in his hands and gives it,” he added.

“Thank God these kinds of people still make up the majority of our country.”

The footage which Albayrak shared following a puppy’s “killing” incident, which evoked nationwide outrage over the weekend, has gone viral ever since he shared it.

The horrible killing of a puppy has caused outrage in Turkey, with politicians voicing support for a new law to prevent violence against stray animals and an animal rights organization calling on authorities to find those responsible for the incident.

The puppy was found on June 13 by passersby in a wooded area in the Sapanca district of the western province of Sakarya fighting for its life after four of its feet had been cut off.

Locals hospitalized the dog. But the puppy succumbed to its injuries two days later despite an emergency operation in Istanbul.