MESOP TODAYS HEADLINE : ERDOGAN’S GRAND MIS-CALCULATION

More than 15,000 people, including several members of parliament, participated in the funeral ceremony for Alkan in the southern province of Osmaniye on Aug. 23. 

Tensions ran high when Justice and Development Party (AKP) politicians attempted to take a place in the front row during the prayer service for Alkan. “You have nothing to do here. Get out,” an infuriated mourner shouted at AKP deputies Suat Ünal and Mücahit Durmutoglu.

“I am a relative of our martyr and I am not standing in the front row. What are these marauders doing there?” another person in the crowd asked angrily. Then the crowd began to boo the local religious head who conducted the ceremony for making a place for AKP deputies.

As AKP deputies were forced to leave the ceremony grounds, a cousin of the slain soldier yelled in protest, targeting Erdogan. “What kind of deal have you made that the children of our homeland are going like this? Why doesn’t Turkey stand up? Why does Turkey sleep? Is it the solution process? The solution is now lying here,” Ahmet ?ahin said. (…)

“Why do those who have been saying ‘solution’ since yesterday now say war?” asked Mehmet Alkan, a uniformed lieutenant colonel and the elder brother of a slain soldier, as the funeral ceremony continued.

“This son of our homeland was just 32 years old. He couldn’t get enough of his country, his beloved ones yet. Who is his murderer?”