KAHRAMANMARAS, Turkey (AKP/CNN) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is under fire for comments he made to a little girl during a rally in Kahramanmaras over the weekend.
In a video posted online, Erdogan invited the girl onstage during a televised Justice and Development Party meeting, and told her she would receive military honors if she was martyred.
"Look, look, what is there," Erdogan said in the video which is converted from Turkish to English. "Girl, what are you doing there? We have our maroon berets as well, but maroon berets never cry. Yes, a lieutenant colonel of gendarmes' special operations unit, praise be! She has a Turkish flag in her pocket too. If she's martyred, they'll lay the flag on her, God willing. She is ready for everything, isn't she?"
The girl replied, yes.
Leader of newly-founded opposition IYI Party, Meral Aksener, said Erdogan "is on the path of Hamas" and called for him to "stop babbling" and "put on a serious statesman attitude".
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