Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus has become the first senior government official to condemn consecutive violent attacks targeting daily Hurriyet, describing them as "very awful." "The presence of very awful attacks against some press bodies in recent days have been troubling all of us," Kurtulmus said at a press conference on Sept. 9, without explicitly citing the name of the Hurriyet headquarters and Ankara printing center. Both were subject to violent attacks on the night of Sept. 8, marking a second similar incident after attacks early on Sept. 7. "As the government, we curse these incidents and we also condemn the powers behind these incidents," Kurtulmus added. "We openly state that we will never tolerate these attacks against media institutions. An investigation will be launched into all those linked to the incidents," he said. Hurriyet's Istanbul headquarters and Ankara offices were pelted with stones by club-wielding protesters on Sept. 8, less than 48 hours after a similar attack by Justice and Development Party (AKP) supporters. The raid on Sept. 8 came hours after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his verbal attacks on Hurriyet, accusing it of "distorting" his words.
