Erdoğan 'prevented ministers from wishing CHP head speedy recovery after mob attack'

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan prevented ministers from wishing main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu a speedy recovery following the attack on him in 2019, Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) deputy Mustafa Yeneroğlu said on Oct. 27.

Kılıçdaroğlu was the target of a lynching during the funeral of a soldier in Ankara's Çubuk district and had rocks thrown 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.

A former deputy of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Yeneroğlu said that he had shared a message on social media to convey his best wishes to the CHP leader alongside a "few other ministers."

"The ministers got a call from the presidential palace and were told 'We don't have such a policy, we will certainly not wish him a speedy recovery,'" Yeneroğlu said. 

The attack on Kılıçdaroğlu is yet to be investigated, the deputy noted, adding that the suspects who organized the attack and provoked it should be identified. 

"I don't think it was a random attack," the deputy said. 

Earlier on Oct. 27, Erdoğan showed footage of the attack during a group meeting of the AKP, where the voiceover was heard saying "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."

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