Turkish deputy claims Charlie Hebdo attack was ‘staged’

ISTANBUL

Justice and Development Party (AKP) Gaziantep MP Ali Şahin.

A deputy from Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has claimed that the deadly Jan. 7 Charlie Hebdo attack was “staged like a movie scene.”Ali Şahin, a member of Parliament representing the southeastern Turkish province of Gaziantep, sent a series of tweets on Jan. 8 saying the lack of traffic in the Paris street during the attack was “thought-provoking” and that it seemed “as if it was a movie scene.”The Turkish deputy also claimed that the “God is great” rallying cry of the assailants was “a fabricated mise-en-page [layout],” apparently mixing the French word with “mise-en-scene.”“The moment that [the assailant] left the vehicle and fired on the policeman who was lying is also thought-provoking. The direction that the gun was pointed at and fired is not the policeman. It targets to the front of him. There is no blood. The camera stops filming after the terrorists shot the police and left,” Şahin further stated.Şahin’s views have been slammed on Turkish social media with several users describing them as “a conspiracy theory.”