Erdoğan shows footage of attack on Kılıçdaroğlu while targeting him during AKP meeting
President Erdoğan has shown a previous attack on CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu while targeting him during the AKP's parliamentary group meeting. Kılıçdaroğlu remained defiant, saying, "I'm not afraid of you."
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has slammed main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu over various issues, showing the footage of a previous attack on him during a parliamentary group meeting of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The video shown to AKP members featured the attack on Kılıçdaroğlu in 2019 in the Çubuk district of the capital Ankara.
"The attempts of Kılıçdaroğlu, who doesn't learn any lessons from the defeats he suffered in the elections in the past 11 years, to provoke the public don't stop," said the voice-over when the attack footage was being shown.
A group attempted to lynch Kılıçdaroğlu during the funeral of a soldier and threw rocks at him in April 2019. He then took refuge in a house in the area and had to wait indoors for hours before being evacuated.
Erdoğan on Oct. 27 targeted Kılıçdaroğlu in his speech, claiming that the main opposition leader was "verbally attacking" public employees.
"Kılıçdaroğlu seeks to bring the one-party fascist rule back," Erdoğan said.
The president was referring to Kılıçdaroğlu's call on bureaucrats to stop carrying out illegal orders. He made the call after it was revealed that members of the Turkey Youth Foundation (TÜGVA), an Islamist foundation that has President Erdoğan's son Bilal Erdoğan on its advisory board, infiltrated into the state.
Later on Oct. 27, Kılıçdaroğlu responded to Erdoğan and said that he's not afraid of him.
"This individual made people watch the footage of the attack against me. He simply ordered some people to finish what was left unfinished," he said.
"I'm neither afraid of you nor your associates," the main opposition leader said defiantly.
Erdoğan's move to show the footage of the attack on Kılıçdaroğlu was reminiscent of his earlier remarks on a verbal attack against Good (İYİ) Party leader Meral Akşener in the Black Sea province of Rize.
The president in May praised the attack on Akşener, as he also implied that more would follow.
"These are your better days," Erdoğan said at the time.