On the day Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan marked his 12th anniversary in office as the longest-serving prime minister — on March 14 in his Gaziantep rally ahead of the local elections due in about two weeks — he asked people to continue supporting him for the ongoing negotiations with the imprisoned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is considered responsible for about 40,000 deaths in the country’s fight against the Kurdish separatists. But unexpectedly, Erdogan made the huge crowd before him boo the mourning family of Berkin Elvan, who died at age 15 two days before, after having been in a coma for nine months as a result of police shooting a tear gas canister into his head. Erdogan defined Elvan as a terrorist and praised Burakcan Karamanoglu, 22, who died on the night of Elvan’s funeral, as a martyr. This sounds like Erdogan is consciously seeking chaos in the country.
"This kid with steel marbles in his pockets, with a slingshot in his hand, his face covered with a scarf, and who had been drawn in by terror organizations, was unfortunately subjected to pepper spray,” Erdogan told the crowd. “How could the police determine how old the person was whose face was covered with a scarf, and who was hurling steel marbles with the slingshot in his hand?" he questioned.