Turkish Opposition blasts 'Islamist' AK Party deputy for hate speech.

Turkish Opposition blasts 'Islamist' AK Party deputy for hate speech.(TZ).

A main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy has criticized a ruling party lawmaker for posting hate speech against Turkey's minorities on Twitter and called on her to apologize.

CHP Deputy Chairman Sezgin Tanrıkulu criticized Gülseren Topuz, an İstanbul deputy of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), via Twitter, for remarks she shared on her own account.Topuz, sharing a picture of Şişli mayor Mustafa Sarıgül gathering with non-Muslim minorities, reportedly wrote on her Twitter account beneath the picture: “Whoever likens oneself to a community belongs to that community,” citing a saying of Prophet Muhammad.

She further added a hashtag -- reading in English “Sarıgül's real face”-- under her statement, which also said “Thank God we are Muslim.”

Later, she posted further photographs of Sarıgül taken during his visits to sacred places of different religions along with comments such as “the order [for Sarıgül's upcoming İstanbul mayoral] candidacy came from the freemasons.”

Tanrıkulu, noting that Turkey has various cultural dynamics and is also a haven for people with different religions and ethnicities, wrote on his Twitter account that Topuz committed a crime by posting prejudiced comments regarding minorities in Turkey.

Sezginkulu, accusing Topuz of having a tendency to approach the election rivalry between the two parties with a discriminatory attitude towards minorities, further wrote: “She committed a hate crime when she commented on Mustafa Sarıgül's tweets with an attitude targeting Jews and Christian citizens of the country. I condemn her offensive remarks which are against the rules of personal ethics as well as political ones. She should apologize to non-Muslim communities as soon as possible.

We are expecting the ruling party to implement the necessary sanctions over the issue or else we, as the party, will take her personal thoughts also as the opinions of all of the party members on the matter. "