The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Karabük deputy Mehmet Ali Şahin has said that criticisms against participants of the party’s second extraordinary congress, who listened to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s message on their feet, justified.
AK Party held a congress on May 22 to elect then-chairman candidate and current Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım as the leader of the party. Participants waited on their feet while Erdoğan’s message was being read by Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ, a move that was highly criticized by many people, especially those on social media.
Speaking during the provincial advisory council meeting, Karabük deputy Şahin said people who criticize standing on feet while listening to Erdoğan’s message during the party’s congress are right to do so.
“Tayyip Erdoğan is a very modest person. Frankly, I think the criticism [agaisnt listening to his message on feet] is justified. We could have listened to his message respectfully while sitting. When congress head Mr. Bekir [Bozdağ] stood up [to read the message], our candidate chairman Mr. Binali [Yıldırım] also did the same. Mr. Numan [Kurtulmuş] was sitting next to me, we looked at each other and asked, ‘Do we need to stand on our feet while listening to [Erdoğan’s] message?’ Once they were on their feet, others also started to stand up and thus we did the same,” Şahin said.
“From now on, we need to be careful about this issue. We only stand up while chanting the Turkish national anthem,” Şahin reminded.