YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS. The United States Embassy in Turkey has condemned the Sept. 6 attack on the daily Hürriyet headquarters in Istanbul, in a post shared via its official Twitter account both in English and Turkish. “Armenpress” reports the aforementioned, referring to the Hürriyet daily.

“We condemn the violent attacks on Hurriyet. Media freedom is a bedrock principle of all democratic societies,” it stated.

“Elected officials must be careful not to appear to encourage attacks on media.  All parties should support freedom of the press,” the embassy added.

Supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attacked the building of the Hürriyet daily with stones on Sunday night, accusing the daily of misquoting the president in a report.

A group of 150 people which chanted slogans supporting the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and Erdoğan attempted to enter the building. After private guards failed to disperse the group, police intervened.

The attack followed a Twitter campaign organized by pro-government trolls and columnists who called on people to protest the daily after it reported on a televised speech of Erdoğan. During the speech, while commenting on the recent unrest in the country, Erdoğan said the situation would be different if people had given a single party 400 deputies and the power to establish government on its own. His statement came as many soldiers were killed in a fresh ambush by the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Dağlıca.

 “Dağlıca comment from Erdoğan, These would not have happened if 400 deputies were given,” Hürriyet tweeted. The editors of the daily deleted the tweet after reactions. Pro-government circles claimed that Erdoğan did not make a reference to the Dağlıca attack yet his statement was a response to a question on claims that politicians’ harsh statements and his earlier statements indirectly calling for 400 deputies for the ruling party ahead of the elections lie behind recent environment of clash and terror incidents.