AKP headquarters staff member detained on drug charges

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A staff member working at the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) headquarters was detained on March 26 after footage of him using cocaine prompted outrage on social media.

Various reports initially said that Kürşat Ayvatoğlu was an adviser to AKP Vice Chair Hamza Dağ, but Dağ later refuted these claims. 

Dağ said that Ayvatoğlu is "neither his adviser nor executive assistant. "The employment contract of the person in question who has been working as bureau personnel at the headquarters for approximately one year, has been terminated," Dağ said in a tweet on March 26.

Earlier, Dağ's adviser Muhammed Doğan also said that the only advisers on record for the vice chair were Muhammet Doğan, Abdürrahim Atasever and Murat Kaygusuz.

However, Ayvatoğlu is seen standing close to Dağ during a March 25 handover ceremony in the AKP headquarters. Reports said that Ayvatoğlu had shown Dağ where he should sit when he came to the meeting room and kept an eye on him the whole time. 

Additionally, images of Ayvatoğlu posing with Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have surfaced, prompting debate about the government's supposedly strict stance against drugs. 

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Hasan Baltacı shared photos showing Ayvatoğlu standing next to Erdoğan and Soylu. 

"The country is being managed with this head? It is a shame," wrote Baltacı. 

Turkish courts often prosecute artists, namely rappers, for "encouraging drug use" in their work, even though one YouTuber who faced charges had created a parody of drug use.

Court arrests Turkish rapper Burry Soprano for 'inciting drug use' in his songsDomestic

Turkish YouTuber sentenced to 4 years in prison over parody video said to 'encourage drug use'Media

Drug traffickers caught smuggling cocaine inside portraits of football legend Maradona in IstanbulDomestic