As many as 1,845 cases have been opened against people accused of insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he came to office in 2014, a top official says.
Erdogan has been accused of aggressively using a previously seldom-used law that bars insults to the president as a way to muffle dissent. Those who have gone on trial include celebrities, journalists and even schoolchildren.
Critics say Erdogan, who has been accused of increasing authoritarianism, even considers strong criticism as insults.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the COP 21 United Nations conference on climate change, at Le Bourget, on the outskirts of Paris, France, on November 30, 2015. (AFP/Jacques Demarthon)
Responding to questions in parliament late Tuesday, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag says his ministry has allowed 1,845 cases on charges of insulting Erdogan to go ahead.
He defends the prosecutions, saying: “I am unable to read the insults leveled at our president. I start to blush.”
Erdogan last year also filed a complaint against the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper’s editor-in-chief Can Dundar and the paper’s Ankara representative Erdem Gul for their reports on alleged arms smuggling to Syria, which led to their arrests and subsequent charges of spying and aiding a terror organization. They go on trial March 25.
— AP
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