A police band in Turkey sang an election song by the ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) as the latest of signs showing Turkey becoming a party-state, Cumhuriyet newspaper claimed. 

In a graduation ceremony held in the presidential complex in Turkey’s capital Ankara, the Police Academy Band gave a concert, before speeches by the President Tayyip Erdogan and the Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, the newspaper said. 

After a couple of song, the band played “Turkey’s Century,” a song that was composed for a big event where President Erdogan launched his AKP’s election campaign ahead of next year’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

“The use of police as AKP’s propaganda” as the Cumhuriyet newspaper coined the event drew strong reaction from the opposition.

“Playing the AKP’s election song at the Police Academy graduation ceremony is a clear violation of the constitution, it is a violation of the law, it is a crime!” said Good Party Deputy Musavat Dervisoglu, adding that trying to make the police a political support for the AKP is to put dynamite on the foundation of social peace.