TURKEY: BOY ACCUSES PRIME MINISTER, SCRATCHED MY NECK
(ANSAmed) - ANKARA, MARCH 13 - On an electoral visit to the
city of Adana, in the southern region of the Aegean, the Turkish
prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, is thought to have grabbed the
neck of young protestor, before leaving the unmistakable signs
of deep finger nail scratches on his skin.
The secular website 'Flash Haber' reports the news, which is
part of the same group as Flash TV, and which published a
profile shot of the boy, aged 13, whose initials M.S.O. were
used to keep his identity secret, and who appears in the picture
with his eyes blacked out. On his neck, below a typical Turkish
student hair-style, red signs of long and deep nail-scratches
are evident.
Last Monday Erdogan was on a visit to Adana for the electoral
campaign for the administrative consultations on March 29 when,
as his vehicle moved through the streets in a convoy, the young
boy crossed police barriers and shouted towards him, "God will
punish you in the next elections." "I was immediately stopped
by the escorting officers," the young boy recounted, who
brought me before him. The prime minister put one hand on my
neck and, pushing me roughly, scratched me with his nails asking
me: 'Why did you shout those things?' I answered him, 'My father
lost his job recently because of the economic crisis.' Then he
let me go." Flash Haber reports that the boy's family has begun
attempts to find a lawyer to charge the Prime Minister with
mistreating a child: that is M.S.O.'s status in the secular laws
of Turkey, even if, according to Islam, which is the at the
basis of Erdogan's AKP Justice and Development party, the boy
should already be deemed to be a "father of a family" and
therefore essentially a man.(ANSAmed).
2009-03-13 20:05