STATEMENT FROM EGEMEN BAGIS

I have been following the written, visual and social media attempting to start a lynching campaign against me in disbelief.

A twitter message I have sent during the AK Party rally with the Prime Minister in Siirt (Southeastern city in Turkey) has been distorted beyond imagination. Although I understand that the timing was very unfortunate, it was by no means ill-intentioned regarding the sad funeral which happened to be taking place in Istanbul on that day.

I want to bring clarity to the subject once again.

There is absolutely no connection between the message or the word in that message and the people who attended the funeral of Berkin Elvan who sadly lost his life at a very young age.

Some people are using this emotional situation to further aggravate the already tense situation in our country prior to the upcoming local elections and making me a scapegoat in an attempt to weaken AK Party.

The message (containing the word "necrophiliac") was written in reference to those people who continue to encourage terrorism in an area that currently has established a harmonious status as a result of the "Resolution" process led by Prime Minister Erdogan for the multi ethnic region (Siirt and Southeast Turkey) and Turkey at large.

If my previous and following tweets are reviewed, it is clear that my message was related to a competitive but peaceful local election rally in Siirt.

Despite the fact that I deleted the original tweet after realizing that some people were misinterpreting it, I also retweeted an explanatory message to clarify myself, certain radicals continued to provoke the public ignoring my efforts.

I would like to stress that this tweet was not in any way meant to demean the thousands who attended the sad funeral or mourned for a young soul lost.

The intended recipients of the twitter message were those who were critical of the cease-fire in Southeast Turkey and the peace established during the "Resolution" process putting an end to terrorism and the bloodshed for the past eighteen months all throughout Turkey.

Egemen Bagis

AK Party Member of Parliament Representing Istanbul