A mob attack on a prominent opposition leader and her entourage has sounded the alarm in Turkey on the extent of impunity for perpetrators of assaults on the opposition, as the Turkish president has openly endorsed the incident as a “good lesson” to his critics.

Good Party leader Meral Aksener traveled to Turkey’s Black Sea province of Rize on May 21, which is also the hometown of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. As Aksener was scouting the streets and talking with shopkeepers in various parts of the province, dozens of Erdogan supporters gathered around her entourage to protest her remarks likening Erdogan to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid the Israeli-Hamas flare-up.

Aksener continued her trip, as the crowd shouted slogans in support of the Turkish president. Things took a violent turn when the crowd tried to approach her, setting off a brawl between Aksener’s aides and Erdogan’s supporters. The opposition leader was forced to leave the site and taken to her car unharmed. The party officials criticized the police for not taking timely measures to prevent the incident. 

The number of assaulted opposition figures, including the leader of the main opposition and prominent lawmakers, has reached almost 60 in the past two years amid fears of more to come in a climate where Erdogan openly approves aggression and threatens more.