Fascist assailant in same shot with AKP government figures

Murat Alp, one of the assailants of the jailed HDP deputy co-chair Aysel Tuğluk's mother's funeral, revealed to be in close connection with the Turkey's ruling party
Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu (L) poses for a photo with one of the attackers on a funeral.
Sunday, 17 September 2017 18:33

Murat Alp, one of the assailants of the jailed HDP deputy co-chair Aysel Tuğluk's mother's funeral, revealed to be in close connection with the Turkey's ruling AKP party.

On September 13, a fascist mob attacked the jailed HDP deputy co-chair Aysel Tuğluk's mother's funeral.

Two days later following the incident, one of the assailants named Murat Alp shared on his Twitter account his photograph with Süleyman Soylu, the Interior Minister, taken at the police station at the night of the attack. This picture stirred a debate in the public opinion over the connection between the assailant group and the AKP government.

Interior Minister Soylu denied such links with the attackers, saying he had accepted being photographed with the "notable people of the neighbourhood" who had been waiting outside the police station at the night of the attack. Soylu also criticised the leaking of the photograph to the press and called the people who had reacted "despicable". Soylu added that the man in the photo was taken into custody the following day with the directives of the prosecutor's office as part of the ongoing investigation. "What is important is not with whom our photos were taken, but whether they were involved in a crime in terms of the law," he added.

Minister Jülide Sarıoğlu (L), Bilal Erdogan (R) with one of the attackers.

However, the debates had been heated after some other old photographs of the assailant Murat Alp with other figures from the ruling AKP government were published in the local media. One of the photographs shows the attacker with Bilal Erdoğan, the son of the President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The other photograph shows him with Jülide Sarıeroğlu, the Minister of Labour and Social Security.

It had also been argued by the local media that the assailant Murat Alp is an active member of the Gölbaşı district organisation of the AKP. This allegation also supposes why the assailant has so many photographs with the prominent figures of the AKP government.

Although the ruling AKP government released statements reprimanding the attack on the funeral of jailed HDP deputy co-chair Aysel Tuğluk's mother, the government has been fuelling pro-nationalist revolts systematically. Several incidents of assaults to the Kurdish population had happened in Turkey. Also, pro-Kurdish party HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, former co-chair Figen Yüksekdağ and nine other deputies of HDP were arrested over their alleged links to the armed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist organisation in Turkey.