İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu has attracted criticism from various political factions for vacationing with his family in Turkey’s eastern mountains days after a visit to Elazığ province, which was rocked by an earthquake on Friday.
He declined to answer a journalist’s question about the criticism at his hotel in Erzurum, where he was to stay until Thursday.
İmamoğlu’s Twitter post showing him skiing with his family has received some 13,000 mentions, mostly objecting the timing of the vacation.
In addition to the pro-government media, which targets İmamoğlu all the time, some media figures critical of the government also wrote that the vacation was ill timed.
He had visited Elazığ province a few days earlier, bringing aid to families affected by the strong earthquake, which killed 41 people.
He was previously criticized for vacationing in the seaside town of Bodrum during a summer flood in İstanbul.