European Parliament (EP) President Martin Schulz was hinted at being a child molester during a Tuesday night TV program aired on state-run broadcaster TRT and featuring Hasan Kurtulmuş and Yiğit Bulut, the top advisor of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the T24 news website reported.
Bulut and Kurtulmuş lashed out at Martin Schulz, who harshly criticized the detention of a number of Cumhuriyet daily journalists, including the paper’s editor-in-chief, on Monday, saying that the detentions are yet another red line crossed against freedom of expression in Turkey.
“Martin Schulz, is there press freedom in Europe? Is the press free? Then you go ahead and publish a news story in any EU country about boys molested by priests in the last 50 years. Go ahead and expose the chain that reaches all the way to the Vatican,” said Bulut.
“He cannot do it because his name might also be on that list,” said Kurtulmuş in response to Bulut’s challenge to Schulz.
Erdoğan’s adviser continued criticizing Schulz in his column published on Wednesday in the pro-Erdoğan Star daily, saying that “seminary graduate” Schulz had exceeded his limits regarding Turkey.
“Mr. Schulz, pull yourself together! The owner and the only decision maker of this country are the nation and those who represent the people. Neither people like you nor the undistinguished structure called the EU can make decisions for this nation,” wrote Bulut.
Detention warrants were issued for 18 journalists from the Cumhuriyet daily, and police began to take the journalists into custody one by one on Monday morning.
“Oh brother, we don’t care about your red line. We will draw one more red line over your red line. The nation determines what our red line is going to be,” Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said to Schulz, speaking at his party’s parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday.