Tortured puppy shifts Turkey elections agenda

Disturbing images of dying mutilated dog
trigger rare show of unity among nation’s politicians

In Depth

The puppy, whose paws and tail had been chopped off, was found
last Wednesday in a forest in Sapanca, in
the northwestern province of Sakarya. The
mutilated animal was taken to a vet but died during surgery two
days later.

A construction worker was arrested over the weekend in
connection to the crime, as images of the puppy went viral across
the country. 

Following a public outcry, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
pledged that Turkey’s animal rights laws would be amended following
the 24 June vote.

“Whether at home or on the street, we will take the law into
consideration and evaluate it. This operator was arrested today.
The authorities in Sapanca ordered his arrest,” said Erdogan, who
is battling to win a second term.

“There is nothing acceptable about this, but it is very
important to show this awareness.”

The issue “has been taken up by rival politicians in the
close-run contest, in which the country’s strongman president is
standing on a platform that would see his powers enhanced”, says
Sky News.

United front

The shocking cruelty case has prompted “a rare show of unity
among Turkey’s political parties and presidential candidates, who
have been trading barbs for weeks ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary
and presidential elections”, says Reuters.

Both government officials and opposition politicians condemned
the act and have called for stricter measures against people found
guilty of mistreating animals.

Animal rights groups say Turkey’s punishments for animal cruelty
are too lenient. An “amendment to animal rights legislation has
been on the parliament’s agenda for months, but little progress has
been made”, adds the news agency.

Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily News says many people
prosecuted in Turkish courts for torturing, tormenting or killing
animals receive only minor penalties.

The new government bill was sent to the parliament in April, and
proposes that animals “are not property”, in what is being
described as a landmark change of perspective in Turkish law.

But the head of a leading animal rights group in the country
said the new legislation still gives local authorities a “license
to kill” stray animals.

“Under the current law, municipalities are collecting animals,
poisoning them, mass-killing them or transporting them to wild
places with no food resource, condemning them to death. Some of
them, such as the municipality of [the Central Anatolian province
of] Kayseri went even further by burying around 800 stray dogs
alive. They would still be able to do this even after the new bill
becomes law,” Metin Yıldırım, the chair of the Association to
Protect Stray Animals and Environment, told the Turkish daily
Birgun.

Although the new bill proposes heavier jail sentences, “these
sentences would still be light enough to be turned into fines”,
adds the Hurriyet Daily News.

Erdogan weakened

Under constitutional reforms adopted following a referendum in
April 2017, the Turkish electorate each get two votes: one is for
the new president, while the other decides which parties will have
seats in parliament.

President Erdogan has “not lost an election in 16 years, but the
forthcoming elections are likely to be the most difficult of his
political career”, says Deutsche Welle.

Ozer Sencar, owner of Turkish opinion research institute
Metropoll, told the German newspaper that he has never seen Erdogan
run such a bad election campaign.

According to Sencar, Erdogan “no longer determines the agenda or
presents any vision for the future. When he appears in public he
seems weak and lacks passion”.

“He’s never made so many mistakes in his speeches,” Sencar
added.

There is a very real possibility “that Erdogan will win the
presidency but lose parliament to the opposition”, says The Guardian.

It will depend on “whether the opposition can draw away
conservative and nationalist voters, as well as Kurdish voters
angry about Erdogan’s alliance with the nationalists”, the
newspaper adds.