“Kabataş incident was a fiction”, says former Star editor
Murat Seçkin, who was then editor of Star daily which published a news claiming a kerchiefed woman was battered and sexually harassed during the Gezi resistance, explained the time he saw the article by Elif Çakır.
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* Then PM Erdoğan claimed on June 11, 2013 that one of his relative's bride was dragged on the ground, attacked, harassed and peed on her head at Kabataş. * Journalist Elif Çakır had claimed based on her interview on June 13, 2013 with the alleged victim, Zehra Develioğlu that Develioğlu was attacked and harassed at Kabataş by around barechested 70 men wearing leather pants and gloves. * Then PM Erdoğan, among some other politicians and journalists, had further supported the claims by saying city surveillance camera footage were not being released to not spark a civil unrest. * The interview has sparked a huge unrest in public, and the prosecution started. * The city surveillance camera footage were examined, however Develioğlu was seen as leaving the scene of incident without any attack or assault, which led to criticisms of figures who backed the fiction and claimed they saw the footage with their own eyes and it was a tragedy. |
Seçkin, after 121 weeks of then Prime Minister voiced the incident expresses the following statements in his article titled "The journalist who understands Kabataş harassment through eyes!"
"...It was May...The year of 2013...Location is Taksim Square...Youngsters dance the halay at Gezi Park as police leave Beyoğlu...Indeed we later learn that these youngsters were of pro-coup mindset and at least 70 of them wore leather gloves!..I was an editor in the days when the 'pro-coup' youngsters kick up a dust.
"Justice and Development Party (AK Party) therefore commences an attack upon this huge protest shaking the government. Then Prime Minister Erdoğan deals the deadly blow to 'looters'*: 'Bride of a relative of mine...was harassed by Gezi protesteters at Kabataş...Kerchiefed...' Media hearing Erdoğan starts looking for the bride Erdoğan mentions...
"...'Journalist' Elif enters the 'interview' she made with 'victim' bride [Mayor of İstanbul Bahçelievler district's bride]. Editor of the page cannot hide his astonishment...He is asking a few questions to Çakır who comes to editorial office with the enthusiasm and proud of making such a grand news. The first question: Were all those told by this woman?..
Elif's response: She was psychologically broken-down...She was in no state to talk. What could she tell? However, I understood what she meant!!!" (EA/TK)
* Then PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had called the protesters "looters" and accused them of attempting a coup d'etat.
Click here to read the article in Turkish