1,845 Cases Filed For 'Insulting' Turkish President In Just 18 Months
from the thin-skin dept
Okay, so it was already fairly obvious that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had something of a thin skin. This is the guy who is trying to put a local doctor in jail for posting a picture comparing Erdogan to Gollum from The Lord of the Rings.
And the stories keep on coming about prosecutions for “insulting” Erdogan. The most insane one started making news a few weeks ago, when a Turkish man filed a complaint against his own wife for apparently insulting Erdogan in their home.
According to news reports, the man, identified by the Yeni Safak newspaper as Ali D., had warned his wife of three years, G.D., not to curse Erdogan — a popular albeit polarizing political figure — when he appeared on television. She supposedly defied him, and dared him to lodge a legal case against her.
He duly obliged.
“I kept on warning her, saying why are you doing this? Our president is a good person and did good things for Turkey,” the husband is quoted as saying.
Incredibly, it appears that such complaints, which need to be approved by the Justice Ministry are coming in at a rate of over 100 per month. Erdogan has only been President for 18 months, and…
“The justice ministry has allowed 1,845 cases on charges of insulting Erdogan to go ahead,” Bekir Bozdag said, responding to questions in parliament.
“I am unable to read the shameful insults made against our president. I start to blush,” said Bozdag, who is from Erdogan’s ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party.
As the NY Times notes, while the law against insulting the President has been on the books, it has almost never been used until Erdogan took over the Presidency. And, frankly, it seems like Erdogan continuing to pursue such a strategy does much more to hurt his reputation than people telling jokes making fun of him:
The idea that Mr. Erdogan is so delicate that he would be grievously wounded by any language is hard to believe, and really beside the point. He is a ruthless and intolerant ruler who has proven that he does not really believe in and cannot abide his country?s democratic system. Democracy requires that citizens are able to speak out when necessary against their leaders.
Filed Under: free speech, insults, recep tayyip erdogan, turkey
Comments on “1,845 Cases Filed For 'Insulting' Turkish President In Just 18 Months”
Trying to get ahead of the game
Clearly he’s trying to make it so that people don’t feel the need to joke about him by turning himself into the biggest joke in the entire country. I mean really, when the president of the country is such a joke of a politician, humorous jabs and jests just become redundant.
Re: Trying to get ahead of the game
Example of a president who can take jabs pretty well sometimes: Barack Obama
For reference: “Thanks, Obama” and “Born in Africa” jokes.
Re: Re: Trying to get ahead of the game
Erdogan must be jealous that his name didn’t become an acronym like:
One
Big
Ass
Mistake
America
Re: Re: Re: Trying to get ahead of the game
Tacky-
Ass
Yokel,
You
Irritate
People!
Re: Re: Trying to get ahead of the game
shame some of his supporters cannot take jokes at Obama’s exspense all that well
Erdogan's response...
…was “Hey, I resent that!” was taken mistakenly as “Hey, I resemble that!”.
Math is wrong
A little over 1800 complaints in 18 months averages 100/month, not 1000/month.
Re: Math is wrong
math is hard
Re: Math is wrong
That is still 3 and a bit a day, what is he spending his time doing: looking for insults and them briefing lawyers, or does he have a full time lawyers doing this for him?
Isn’t this what Trump wants to do?
And Turkey is trying to join the EU…
Re: Re:
Sad part is that the EU will have to let them join. Right now Turkey can do pretty much anything they want and the EU has to say “Well done!” because if they don’t then Turkey will send them 100k refugees each month for the next 2 years.
Latest thing was to demand €3 billion per year from the EU to hold back the (Syrian) refugees. Turkey says they spent €10 billion over the last 5 years so the €3 billion the EU paid them already should be paid every year. And I am sure that the extra billion will be used for the good of the people in Turkey…
Re: Re:
Upside is that there are two layers in it: The official stance of european politicians which is based on real-politik and the ideological side. In real-politik Turkey is humiliating EU. But on the ideological side, Erdogan is winning nothing in regards to joining EU. He may force EU to open up the frozen negotiations a bit, but he is also creating a heavy antipathy from EU politicians. Since the politicians will have to accept Turkey into EU in the end, he is basically taking a short term win and a long term loss…
To be honest, Gollum must be offended by the comparison. – His Preciousssss
How do you say “Streisand effect” in Turkish?
Make that 1,846
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan bites the wax tadpole.
Only Donald Drumpf has thinner skin.
Erdogan is just asking to get trolled.
Welcome to the next big thing in the US if we are seriously considering Trump as the next president. He’s well known for thin skin.
lese majeste is back and it’s in a democracy
good luck with that Turkey
enjoy your new dictator
.."comparing Erdogan to Gollum from The Lord of the Rings."
LMAO.. The resemblance is striking!!
Best laugh I’ve had in a while. Sorry the Turkish President has no sense of humor. I just might know who he is next time I see his picture, even if he doesn’t like the reason why.
Pretty sure Trump will beat that score in his first 3 days in office…
Erdogan and democracy...
Erdogan is credited with the saying:”Democracy is like a train, when it brings you where you want to be, you leave it”.
Honestly
How do you get to be President of such an important country while having such thin skin.
Erdogan isn’t gollum for one good reason.
Gollum still had the (faint) ability to turn himself around and become good. It made people sad when he didn’t manage to repent and turn himself around.
When someone finally wipes the smug look off Erdogan’s face in an armed revolution, no-one is going to feel sad at all except the guy he has stashing away billions for when Erdogan tries to flee the country.
“Incredibly, it appears that such complaints, which need to be approved by the Justice Ministry are coming in at a rate of over 100 per month.”
Looks like Gollum, smells like Gollum,…