President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday lashed out at a well-publicized insult targeting a mayor from his Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
Speaking at the parliamentary group meeting of the party, Erdoğan said the insult hurled at Zeynep Güneş, mayor of Mihalgazi in Eskişehir province, was a reminder of the mindset behind the Feb. 28 coup. Güneş was among the audience at the parliamentary group meeting, along with a group of women dressed in traditional garb like hers.
Mehmet Emin Korkmaz was behind a scandalous tweet that made rounds on the social media. Korkmaz, a member of the far-right Good Party (IP) hurled insults at Güneş. "Look at this mayor! She is more appropriate for milking cows in her farm than running a town,” Korkmaz wrote in a tweet accompanying a photo of Güneş. Güneş, a three-term mayor, usually wears a traditional dress popular among female villagers in parts of Türkiye. Korkmaz further disparaged Güneş as "uneducated” and mocked her şalvar, a part of her outfit.
Among mounting public outrage over the remarks, prosecutors in Eskişehir launched an investigation into Korkmaz on charges of inciting hatred in public. Korkmaz was detained and remanded into custody on Sunday. IP Secretary-General Osman Ertürk Özel announced on the same day that they referred Korkmaz to the party’s disciplinary board for expulsion as he offered the party’s support to Güneş for "rude behavior she is exposed to.”
As the women in white garbs cheered his speech, Erdoğan thanked "all sisters who accompanied our mayor here by wearing what women wore a century ago, during our War of Independence," he said, referring to Şerife Bacı, Kara Fatma and Nene Hatun, heroines of that war whose outfits were all similar to what Güneş wore. "They reflect the proud stand and nobility of Anatolian women," Erdoğan said.
"We will continue our fight against those who, for years, deprived women of their right to education, the right to work in the public sector and the right to be elected only because they wore a headscarf. We will continue our fight, insulting şalvar and tülbent women of Anatolia wore proudly for centuries," he added, referring to the headdress and women's trousers which are part of the traditional outfit.
"We never turned a blind eye to this mindset thriving on bans and suppression; we will never allow those wagging their fingers toward women. We will stand steadfast against those seeking to revive those dark old days," he said.