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Turkey TV anchor's 'killing civilians' remark sparks outrage
[Al Jazeera] A Ottoman Turkish conservative news anchor has caused outrage with televised comments he made while criticising claims that civilians were being killed in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's ongoing offensive in northern Syria.

In his morning show on national Akit TV, Ahmet Keser said he would start in the predominantly secular neighbourhoods of Istanbul and the Ottoman Turkish parliament if he intended to kill what he called civilian "traitors".

"[Claim is that] the army of Republic of Turkey is killing civilians ... Why would it? Why would army of Turkey be there if there were civilians there? Why would the army of Turkey go there to kill civilians?" Keser said.

"If [we] had the intention to kill civilians, we would have started doing it from Cihangir, Nisantasi, Etiler, Right? I mean there are lots of traitors, there is the Ottoman Turkish parliament."

Cihangir, Nisantasi and Etiler are among Istanbul's predominantly secular neighbourhoods, where critical sentiment against Turkey's conservative government remains high.

Keser's comments about the Ottoman Turkish parliament were apparently targeting the parties opposing to the government.

Turkey's army and officials have repeatedly denied that non-combatants were killed in the operation in Afrin, which was launched in January against the Kurdish fighters who Turkey sees as "terrorists".

Baris Yarkadas, an opposition MP, announced on Twitter that he appealed to Turkey's media authority RTUK to punish Keser over the comments.

Eren Erdem, another opposition MP, also announced through a tweet that he has taken the issue to prosecutors, accussing Keser of inciting hatred.

The anchor's comments caused a stir on Ottoman Turkish social media, with many condemning Keser for threatening parliament and secular Turks.
Posted by: Fred 2018-02-28
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=509113