25.04.2026 15:30
As the repercussions of the CHP provincial administration's protest against the performing children's mehteran team at the April 23 celebrations in Gaziantep continue, a notable assessment on the matter came from President Erdoğan. Erdoğan criticized the opposition's stance using the lyrics from Ahmet Kaya's song: 'From every angle, inconsistency; from every angle, foolishness.'
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made statements at the drawing ceremony "Host Turkey" in Istanbul at the Ataturk Airport National Garden.
"CALLING IT SULTANATE, CALLING IT MONARCHY..."
In his speech, Erdogan also touched on the CHP provincial administration's protest of the marching children's mehteran team during the April 23 celebrations in Gaziantep, saying, "They are disconnected not only from the nation's agenda but also from its history. They are so lacking in historical consciousness that they would protest our Mehter March, which has stirred the battlefields of our heroic ancestors for centuries. Grown men have left their work and turned their backs on a mehteran team composed of children at a children's festival. By calling it sultanate, calling it monarchy, they try to produce opposition to the republic even from our Mehter March."
A SUBTLE REFERENCE WITH AHMET KAYA'S SONG
Continuing his speech by saying, "If you call it funny, it's not funny; if you call it logical, it's not logical," Erdogan stated, "As in the famous song of the late Ahmet Kaya, no matter how you look at it, it's inconsistency; no matter how you look at it, it's foolish. Seeing these crumbling states of the main opposition, we can do nothing but pray to God to grant them wisdom and sense."