On the day Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan marked his 12th anniversary in office as the longest-serving prime minister — on March 14 in his Gaziantep rally ahead of the local elections due in about two weeks — he asked people to continue supporting him for the ongoing negotiations with the imprisoned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is considered responsible for about 40,000 deaths in the country’s fight against the Kurdish separatists. But unexpectedly, Erdogan made the huge crowd before him boo the mourning family of Berkin Elvan, who died at age 15 two days before, after having been in a coma for nine months as a result of police shooting a tear gas canister into his head. Erdogan defined Elvan as a terrorist and praised Burakcan Karamanoglu, 22, who died on the night of Elvan’s funeral, as a martyr. This sounds like Erdogan is consciously seeking chaos in the country.

"This kid with steel marbles in his pockets, with a slingshot in his hand, his face covered with a scarf, and who had been drawn in by terror organizations, was unfortunately subjected to pepper spray,” Erdogan told the crowd. “How could the police determine how old the person was whose face was covered with a scarf, and who was hurling steel marbles with the slingshot in his hand?" he questioned.

Though there is an ongoing judicial investigation into Elvan’s death, the authorities insist they have no public surveillance recording showing this incident. The police have yet to claim responsibility. Ironically enough, Erdogan claimed that a headscarved woman carrying her 6-month-old baby daughter in a stroller at the Kabatas ferry landing in Istanbul on June 1, 2013, was attacked by Gezi Park protesters whom he defined as disrespectful to pious Muslims at the least. Kanal D, a privately owned television channel, however, broadcast on Feb. 13 footage of the city surveillance cameras clearly showing that the woman was not touched at all, and that she had not experienced anything threatening. Erdogan still insists she was attacked, no matter what the city surveillance cameras showed.

The prime minister’s facts are shadowy. Erdogan disregards the death of a 15-year-old boy whose link to terror is under dispute. Even if he had been a terrorist, does the state do justice by killing him? Plus, while Erdogan is trying to show that Elvan’s death is of no value, how could he ask people to forgive the PKK terrorists and accept them as their neighbors and live in harmony and peace?