Ahmet Keser, pro-government Akit TV’s anchor, said in his morning show on Tuesday that he would start in the predominantly secular neighbourhoods of Istanbul and the Turkish parliament if he intended to kill what he called civilian "traitors".
"[Claim is that] the army of Republic of Turkey is killing civilians … Why would it? Why would the army of Turkey be there if there were civilians there? Why would the army of Turkey go there to kill civilians?" Keser said.
"If [we] had the intention to kill civilians, we would have started doing it from Cihangir, Nisantasi, Etiler, Right? I mean there are lots of traitors, there is the Turkish parliament."
Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Barış Yarkadaş announced on his Twitter account that he had launched a complaint against Keser with Turkey’s broadcasting regulator and invited parliamentary speaker İsmail Kahraman to act in response to the implicit threat to parliamentarians.
Akit's television and newspaper are known to make targets out of dissidents, be them politicians, activists, media outlets and journalists.
Yusuf Ozan, another presenter for Akit TV, on February 11 targeted the opposition daily over a story it ran on the Afrin offensive in Syria, saying Cumhuriyet journalists deserve to be executed.
Commenting on a Cumhuriyet report about 11 Turkish soldiers killed in Syria's Afrin Ozan said, "You liked the number 11. It gave you a rush and you put it in the headline. I wish Turkey was a one-man regime that would close you down in two minutes. I wish Turkey was a Sharia regime that would execute you. I’m saying this clearly: You are all traitors."
An arts centre in Kadıköy district of İstanbul founded by Müjdat Gezen, a famous Turkish actor known for his anti-government stance, was set on fire on February 20, 2017. Akit daily run a scandalous headline after the incident, which read "Great shock to Müjdat, the p.mp!".
