1,845 Cases Filed For 'Insulting' Turkish President In Just 18 Months

from the thin-skin dept

Tue, Mar 8th 2016 9:32am — Mike Masnick

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.

Erdogan, when he was Prime Minister, also sued his own government for failing to shut down or block accounts on Twitter that were saying things about him that he disliked.

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.

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Filed Under: free speech, insults, recep tayyip erdogan, turkey

27 Comments

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That One Guy (profile), 8 Mar 2016 @ 8:00am

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.
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- Moonkey, 8 Mar 2016 @ 9:41am
  
  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.
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  - This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2016 @ 10:01am
    
    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
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    - Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2016 @ 11:58am
      
      Re: Re: Re: Trying to get ahead of the game
      Tacky-
      Ass
      Yokel,
      You
      Irritate
      People!
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  - Anonymous Coward, 9 Mar 2016 @ 6:46am
    
    Re: Re: Trying to get ahead of the game
    shame some of his supporters cannot take jokes at Obama's exspense all that well
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Anonymous Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2016 @ 9:36am

Erdogan's response...
...was "Hey, I resent that!" was taken mistakenly as "Hey, I resemble that!".
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Dan (profile), 8 Mar 2016 @ 10:00am

Math is wrong
A little over 1800 complaints in 18 months averages 100/month, not 1000/month.
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- Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2016 @ 10:42am
  
  Re: Math is wrong
  math is hard
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- Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2016 @ 11:15am
  
  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?
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2016 @ 10:31am

Isn't this what Trump wants to do?
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2016 @ 10:39am

And Turkey is trying to join the EU...
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- Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2016 @ 2:06pm
  
  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...
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- Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2016 @ 8:18pm
  
  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...
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Ninja (profile), 8 Mar 2016 @ 10:43am

To be honest, Gollum must be offended by the comparison. - His Preciousssss
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Erbo, 8 Mar 2016 @ 10:54am

How do you say "Streisand effect" in Turkish?
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Rich Kulawiec, 8 Mar 2016 @ 11:02am

Make that 1,846
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan bites the wax tadpole.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2016 @ 11:23am

Only Donald Drumpf has thinner skin.
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BreadGod (profile), 8 Mar 2016 @ 12:04pm

Erdogan is just asking to get trolled.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2016 @ 12:57pm

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.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2016 @ 12:59pm

lese majeste is back and it's in a democracy
good luck with that Turkey
enjoy your new dictator
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Van, 8 Mar 2016 @ 4:47pm

.."comparing Erdogan to Gollum from The Lord of the Rings."
LMAO.. The resemblance is striking!!
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Mar 2016 @ 12:17am

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.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Mar 2016 @ 2:47am

Pretty sure Trump will beat that score in his first 3 days in office...
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frank87 (profile), 9 Mar 2016 @ 5:36am

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".
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limbodog (profile), 9 Mar 2016 @ 7:03am

Honestly
How do you get to be President of such an important country while having such thin skin.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Mar 2016 @ 9:58am

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.
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Pixelation, 22 Mar 2017 @ 7:07pm

"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,...
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