Minister says people in Turkey live in harmony regardless of sect

People in Turkey live in harmony regardless of their sect and ethnicity, the country’s justice minister said on Friday.

“We, 82 million, are all brothers and sisters in Turkey with Alevis, Sunnis, Turkish and Kurdish,” Abdulhamit Gul told reporters in eastern Erzurum province.

On Wednesday, unidentified perpetrators marked one of the walls of an Alevi house with an X sign and discriminative slur in western Izmir province.

“No one can disrupt the peace of any house, and no one can be approached differently due to their sect, belief, thought, and lifestyle,” Gul said, adding that Turkey is a state of law and the perpetrators will be punished in the strongest terms.

He also noted that top prosecutor’s office in Izmir has already initiated an investigation into the incident and examinations are ongoing by security forces.

“A meticulous work is underway to find the person or people, who did or was behind the incident,” Gul added.