Muharrem Sarıkaya returns to Habertürk after resigning for slapping journalist

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Two months after resigning as Habertürk TV's Ankara representative, Muharrem Sarıkaya has started writing columns for Habertürk news portal.

Sarıkaya had to resign after he slapped Ahmet Demir, a reporter for the İhlas News Agency (İHA) during a video interview with Gaziantep Metropolitan Mayor Fatma Şahin. He also resigned from his post at the Turkish Journalists' Association (TGS).

In the article published today (February 14), he noted that he had apologized to Demir and compromised with him before the law.

What happened?

Muharrem Sarıkaya, then Ankara representative of Habertürk, slapped İhlas News Agency (İHA) reporter Ahmet Demir in the face while interviewing Fatma Şahin, the Metropolitan Mayor of Antep from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on December 17.

Amid public outrage over the incident, Sarıkaya first apologized for his behavior, then announced his resignation on Twitter:

"I apologize to the entire public who reacted against the incident and to my colleagues and family for making them go through such an incident. As of today, I have resigned from office as the Ankara Representative of the Ciner Media Group. Yours respectfully," he has written on his Twitter account.

In the video footage posted the day before (December 19), it is seen that Muharrem Sarıkaya slapped reporter Ahmet Demir, who was trying to solve the problem with the phone and cables during the broadcast.

Later in the video, Sarıkaya is seen to be asking for something from the ones around him, while Mayor Fatma Şahin remains unresponsive and continues speaking to Sarıkaya as part of the interview.

Several press and labor organizations denounced Muharrem Sarıkaya's behavior against İHA reporter Ahmet Demir. (HA/VK)