 The
Deputy Chair of the DYP, Mehmet Golhan, denounced the protestors as traitors, while prime minister Necmettin Erbakan, of the Welfare Party, called them "parasites and conspirators...who have nothing to do apart from intrigue".Some commentators felt that the public reaction was mute compared with the weight of the crime, and thus constituted tacit approval.In other words, the accused concluded the populace believed they had indeed been working in the best interests of the state.