Turkey’s AKP MPs continue to draw ire for luxury lifestyles, this time due to Rolex watch

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Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Parliamentary Group Deputy Chair Bahadır Yenişehirlioğlu sparked controversy by sharing a photo on social media showing him wearing a Rolex watch worth half a million Turkish liras while posing with visitors in parliament, captioned with "We are the people themselves."

The Rolex watch worn by AKP lawmaker Yenişehirlioğlu has two models called "Rolex Submariner Date" and "Rolex GMT-Master". The price of these watches varies between 16,200 (562,000 liras) and 16,800 euros.

A minimum wage worker earning 17,002 Turkish liras needs to work for nearly 33 months to buy the watch worth 562,000 liras.

When dozens of negative comments were posted under lawmaker’s photograph, Yenişehirlioğlu removed the post from his account.

Last week, AKP İzmir deputy Şebnem Bursalı also shared a photo of the lobster she had eaten in Monaco on her social media account, which drew severe backlash.

At the AKP’s parliamentary group meeting, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan criticized party members who have been on the spotlight with their recent social media posts and said, "There is no arrogance in our discourse. Looking down on the nation, building walls between us and the nation, putting distance between us and the nation is never and never in our discourse. We are this nation itself. We do not do politics to provide privileges to some people, to distribute office, and title."

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