Staunchly pro-government Yeni Akit daily columnist Mehtap Yılmaz in a Monday article called for the arrest of main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and three CHP deputies.
Accusing Kılıçdaroğlu of “explicitly committing crimes,” “serving the Middle Eastern goals of the European Union by defaming his country” and “supporting putschists,” Yılmaz said the CHP leader has to be thrown out on in his ear and put in jail.
“There is no point in beating around the bush… This man is explicitly committing crimes! He is giving overt support to a putschist terrorist organization. So then… Since he is doing all that for no reason. Since he is stabbing the tourism sector in the back. Since he is provoking the world to hatred and enmity against Turkey. Throw this guy into jail, grabbing him by the ear, and be done with it,” wrote Yılmaz.
Yılmaz said the CHP chairman would only be “purified” in prison and suggested CHP deputies Elif Doğan Türkmen, Eren Erdem and Gamze İlgezdi be jailed in nearby wards “for the sake of it.”
Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan had also implied that Kılıçdaroğlu could be detained or brought before a court to testify during a “March of Justice” that the CHP leader had initiated in protest of the arrest of a CHP deputy, Enis Berberoğlu.
Accusing Kılıçdaroğlu of defending putschists and terrorists, Erdoğan threatened Kılıçdaroğlu with not being able to go out into the street again, during a commemoration event in Ankara.
The Yeni Akit columnist came to media attention after his controversial tweets about Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, and his adopted daughter Afet İnan.
Yılmaz was visited in a hospital in Gaziantep on Dec. 17, 2016 by Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar. The pictures of his visit were published on the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) official website.