President Erdo?an accuses opposition MPs, media of supporting terror

President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an devoted his latest verbal attack to opposition lawmakers and media organizations, accusing them of treason for being the ?partners of the terrorists? who were involved in the killing of Prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz last week.

?I openly say: Those who can?t call a terrorist a terrorist is the partner of the terrorist. Those who can?t call this incident an act of terror are open supporters of terror. Some CHP [Republican People?s Party] and HDP [Peoples? Democratic Party] lawmakers, who don?t call a terrorist a terrorist, are accusing security personnel of committing state terror,? Erdo?an told a group of neighborhood and village heads on April 8.

?We see that some representatives of the professional chambers and nongovernmental organizations are acting in the same manner. It does not matter whether he is a party chairman or a lawmaker. Nobody?s titles can hide whether he or she is a terrorism supporter. Just like the terrorists who killed our prosecutor, those who support them are also terrorists,? he said.

Kiraz was killed on March 31 following an eight-hour standoff that began after ?afak Yayla and Bahtiyar Do?ruyol, two members of the outlawed Revolutionary People?s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), took him hostage, demanding that the police who killed 15-year-old Berkin Elvan during the 2013 Gezi protests publicly reveal themselves. Police stormed Kiraz?s office despite an apparent deal on the issue, while a subsequent medical report showed that the prosecutor had been hit 10 times, suggesting he was shot by both the police and the militants.

Criticizing and strongly condemning some media outlets without naming them for printing a picture of the prosecutor as militants held a gun to his head;...