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Referring to academics who signed the Peace Declaration, Justice and Development Party (AKP) Bayburt MP Şahap Kavcıoğlu has said that his words “No academic, politician or journalists who signed this petition would be granted right to live by any country, leave alone sending them to prison” were twisted.
Kavcıoğlu claimed that the press twisted his words by taking the statement from a couple of leftist newspapers.
According to a report by Gazete Duvar, Kavcıoğlu’s words have been brought to agenda by Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) İstanbul MP Garo Paylan.
Describing Kavcıoğlu’s words as “an unfortunate statement”, Paylan said, “I’ve realized it when I looked at the records. Maybe he will get a chance to fix it. Mr. Minister, dear friends, we are talking about the academics who signed the Peace Declaration here and Mr. Kavcıoğlu directly targeted these academics. That was a very unfortunate statement”.
Speaking upon that, Kavcıoğlu said:
“In fact, it is obvious what I meant here. This is done for the country…I mean, it is about them living in this country, they go abroad, I meant that…When I said ‘right to live’, it doesn’t address a massacre or murder. We don’t mean anybody’s killing. When you mention the press, they are just a bunch of leftist newspapers twisting my words”. (EKN/TK)