A video allegedly showing the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ‘slapping’ a child on stage at a state function has gone viral.
It happened on July 27th during the opening ceremony of a program that was celebrating houses rebuilt under Urban Transformation Programme by Erdogan in northern province of Rize, Turkey.
Erdogan handed over keys to homeowners whose houses were reconstructed for urbanization projects. In the video, two boys were brought onto the stage. Erdogan made a sign asking them to kiss his hand before they left.
One of the boys hesitated for a while and he looked briefly at the president for some time whom after wards slapped him. The boy kissed Erdogan’s hand after a moment and then he gave him some money.
This incident has been heavily criticized and discussed online. Some people thought it was harmless fun while others thought it was inappropriate behavior for such an important figure.
This is not the first time such an incident involving Erdogan happened last year when he also slapped his grandson, with similar consequences.
This adds to further examination of public engagement by President Erdogan. Earlier on Sunday another video went global where Mr. Erdogan spoke to his party workers; in it he talked about Israel’s war against Gaza and how Turkey could intervene comparing this with her actions in Libya as well as Karabakh.
