Erdogan aligns with Turkish Mafia against opposition

Turkey’s notorious mafia boss Alaattin Cakici, who was recently released from jail under an amnesty law pushed through by the government and its coalition partner MHP, has publicly threatened the country’s opposition leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, telling him to “watch his step.”

“Will you stop releasing mafia leaders, drug traffickers and jailing thought criminals?” the opposition leader asked during his parliamentary speech.

On Tuesday, Cakici told Kilicdaroglu: “You and your party’s executives are saying that there is no democracy in Turkey and talking against the president. If there had been a dictatorial regime in our country, you would have all been impaled.”

The threat follows Kilicdaroglu’s criticism of the government on Nov. 17 over its amnesty law but it has yet to be condemned by any government figure. Journalists and political prisoners were excluded from the controversial amnesty law adopted in April.

Opposition counterparts, including Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, demand an end to the silence surrounding threats and insults.

France's Macron condemned “declarations of violence” by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and raised the possibility of new sanctions against Ankara.