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Treating Attacker as a Hero Exposes Moral Deprivation in Turkey’s Politics
Making a Hero Out of an Attacker. The Aftermath of Mob Attack Against Opposition Leader Reveals Moral Corruption in Turkey’s Politics.
Turkey still reels from the reverberating echoes of a mob attack against the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader at the weekend. No less disturbing was how the government responded to the attack in its aftermath.
The prevarication on the behalf of authorities to condemn the assault and the attacker exposes an emerging flawed political culture devoid of any shred of morality. How to describe the incident itself has become a matter of political controversy. Senior government figures equivocated in their wording and stopped short of outright condemning the attacker and other people who encircled the CHP leader for a possible lynching.
Government supporters saw no scruples in embracing Osman Sarigun, the suspect who punched CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, as nothing less than a hero. Thousands poured positive comments on his Facebook profile. They even opened a hashtag “#OsmanAmcayalnızdeğildir” (Uncle Osman Is Not Alone) on Twitter. The suspect, who was released on the condition of judicial supervision after a brief detention, had…
