An old video surfaced this week showing Turkish opposition leader Özgür Özel drinking alcohol in a cemetery and pouring it on a grave has sparked controversy in Turkey and could derail the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) aspirations to appeal to the conservative electorate.
The footage was recorded in Nazımiye (Tunceli province) during the death anniversary of Kamer Genç, a CHP deputy who died in 2016. In the video, Özgür Özel is seen with others, including CHP deputy Veli Ağbaba, standing next to Genç’s grave, while several of those present hold glasses of rakı, a traditional alcoholic drink in Turkey that has an alcohol content of over 45%. According to Turkish media reports, the video was recorded almost six years ago, on 22 January 2020, when Özel was not yet a party leader, but he has not yet made any statements about it.
Conservative press close to the government such as Yeni Şafak, Sabah, A Haber or Yeni Akit have described the images as “scandalous“, “disrespectful” or “outrageous”, while on social networks the reaction has been varied: from those who speak of “indecency” and “insult” to the deceased, to those who – mainly from sectors of the left – defended the act claiming that it belongs to “private life” or that it is not a problem if it is a personal “tribute” or a “last will”.
“It is an insult to the memory of the deceased,” says the family
The Genç family‘s lawyer, Ergün Özer, however, made it clear in statements to the media that for those close to the deceased it was an act of disrespect, and strongly denied that it was the deceased’s last wish to drink alcohol at his grave. “This is an insult to the memory of the deceased; to put it mildly, it is disrespectful,” he said.
“Kamer Genç never made such a request,” the lawyer said flatly, thus responding to the words of Veli Ağbaba, who for now is the only one who has spoken out and who defended himself to journalists by saying that “It was Kamer Genç’s last wish; he said: ‘Pour rakı on my grave‘ “. “There is no such wish; Kamer Genç was a devote Muslim and would never have wanted such a thing. His only wish was to be buried in Tunceli wrapped in the Turkish flag,” insisted the legal representative of the Genç family, who are preparing a lawsuit against the CHP leader.
Kamer Genç, a former CHP deputy for the Turkish province of Tunceli, died on 22 January 2016 at the age of 75 after a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer. Although Genç never made his faith public, both his funeral and his grave followed the traditional Muslim rite, and there is an inscription on the tombstone inviting visitors to recite verses from the Qur’an in his memory.
In Islam, the consumption of alcohol is strictly forbidden and visits to cemeteries are considered solemn acts in which great respect must be shown. The controversy has been exacerbated not only by the images of the Turkish opposition leader drinking alcohol in a cemetery, but also because during the video Ağbaba is seen even pouring rakı on the grave of the deceased, while Özel appears next to him smiling and apparently under the influence of alcohol.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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