PodcastKars co-mayor Ayhan Bilgen receives death threat on social media
Ayhan Bilgen, the co-mayor of the eastern province of Kars, has received a death threat on social media, with a user sending a picture of bullets, while mentioning JİTEM, a clandestine gendarmerie intelligence unit responsible for dozens of unsolved murders, predominantly in the 1990s.
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Ayhan Bilgen, the co-mayor of the eastern province of Kars, has received a death threat on social media.
The screenshot of the message was shared by Bişar Abdi Alınak, who is a lawyer and the son of prominent Kurdish politician Mahmut Alınak, saying that they will file a complaint over the threat.
"This is the result of a mentality that creates artificial agendas with its trolls and seeks to appoint trustees," Alınak said on May 16, referring to the government's crackdown on municipalities run by the Kurdish issue-focused Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).
15 yıl önce MAZLUMDER çalışmalarında da benzer tehditlere tanıklık ettik.Onlar alışkanlıklarından vazgeçmediği gibi bizim açımızdan da değişen bir şey olmadı.Demirden korkan trene binmez. https://t.co/K4EtD4UbuQ
— Ayhan Bilgen (@ayhanbilgen) May 16, 2020
Bilgen then quoted Alınak's tweet, saying that he remains defiant and not afraid.
In the death threat, the social media user put a picture of bullets with a message mentioning JİTEM, a clandestine gendarmerie intelligence unit responsible for dozens of unsolved murders, predominantly in the 1990s.
The user's profile also featured pictures of "Yeşil" code-named Mahmut Yıldırım, who is a well known figure in JİTEM for unsolved murders and torture.
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