Turkey’s Lawmaker, Bulent Tezcan may be imprisoned for up to four years for calling President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a ”fascist dicvator”.
The Turkish president has filed a criminal complaint against the opposition legislator for calling Turkish President”, Erdogan, exacty what he is perceived to be by many Turkish citizens and world leaders.
Lawmaker Bulent Tezcan, who is the spokesman for the main opposition party, made the comments in a town in northwest Turkey on Monday a she demonstrated support a local mayor who was questioned by authorities for reportedly calling Erdogan a “dictator.” Turkish citizens have complained for years about Erdogan’s undemocratic style of government and his imposing policies found unpopular by the majority of Turkish citizens. If the alleged words of insult were ever used in Britain against the prime minister, or in America, against the President, it would be classed as freedom of speech. The most that would occur would be criticism against those who pronounced the offending words, but pursuing a criminal legal suit would be unthinkable and laughable.
TRT television says Erdogan’s lawyer filed a complaint on Tuesday, accusing Tezcan of insulting the president. The strong despotic ruler is highly influential and has plenty of ‘yes men’ to execute his orders and wishes without considering the moralities or justifications for any actions. The president’s wishes reign supreme in a country greatly divided and wounded by years of oppression.
Erdogan has previously filed similar complaints against about 2,000 people before withdrawing them after last year’s failed coup as a goodwill gesrkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has signalled another crackdown on freedom of speech with a threat to take legal action against anyone who insults him
In April of 2016, President Erdogan told a Nuclear Security Summit in Washington DC that he could tolerate criticism against him, but will legally punish anyone who insulted him but re-iterated his hard-line approach towards the Turkish media.
He has come under international scrutiny following the imprisonment of a number of journalists and other leading opposition critics on “terrorism”
Mr Erdoğan said: “I would (thank) each and everyone one of those who criticise me but if they were to insult me, my lawyers will go and file a lawsuit.”
Erdogan has in the past likened those who demonstrated against him to ”terrorists”. During the protests of 2015, Erdogan condemned activists who used social media to organise and disseminate information against his regime. Several dozen tweeter users were arrested following the protests, and the Turkish president referred the social media as a “menace”. “There is now a menace which is called Twitter,” Erdogan said. “The best examples of lies can be found there. To me, social media is the worst menace to society,” he sated.
DETAIN
Turkish police that year, detained 49 people that included well-known business people and those close to the ruling party, Erdogan told reporter that Turkey was not ”a banana republic” that can be affected by unnamed “operations”, according to the Zaman Newspaper “People who are backed by the media and certain funders cannot change this country,” he said. “People backed by certain dark gangs both inside and outside Turkey cannot mess with the country’s path. They cannot change conditions in Turkey. Turkey is not a country that anyone can launch an operation into. The [Turkish] nation will not allow that. The AK Party, which is governing this nation, will not allow this.”
Turkey needs to develop progressively away from its barbaric history of lawlessness and begin practising the universally shared principles of the rule of law, allowing the independence of the judiciary, instead of continuing to pedal a shamelessly unregulated system of dictatorship governed by the whims and selfish motivations of ruler who continue ruling in a heavy handed and unaccountable manner. The country cannot expect to join the European Union, whilst keeping this abhorrent system of tyranny. The world needs to take a stance against it, and mustn’t soften its position until a successful outcome is achieved.