Like other authoritarian leaders, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of
Turkey has made it a point to show his people who’s boss. He has waged
war on the Kurdish separatists, imprisoned critics, taken control of
much of the media, cowed the military and convinced a preponderance of
his people that he is indispensable.
But Mr. Erdogan does,
it seem, have a vulnerability: a thin skin. He cannot abide criticism.
The evidence is the nearly 2,000 cases that prosecutors have opened
against Turks for insulting Mr. Erdogan since he was elected president
18 months ago.
it seem, have a vulnerability: a thin skin. He cannot abide criticism.
The evidence is the nearly 2,000 cases that prosecutors have opened
against Turks for insulting Mr. Erdogan since he was elected president
18 months ago.
On the list of
offenders are cartoonists, journalists, academics, even children. In a
rather bizarre example of this trend, a Turkish man recently filed a
criminal complaint against his wife for insulting Mr. Erdogan. It is the
first known instance where someone has been the subject of a
complaint for maligning the president in the privacy of his or her own
home, Reuters reported.:
offenders are cartoonists, journalists, academics, even children. In a
rather bizarre example of this trend, a Turkish man recently filed a
criminal complaint against his wife for insulting Mr. Erdogan. It is the
first known instance where someone has been the subject of a
complaint for maligning the president in the privacy of his or her own
home, Reuters reported.:
prosecutors have opened nearly 2,000 cases against people for insulting
Tayyip Erdogan since he became Turkey's president 18 months ago, the
justice minister said on Wednesday.
Insulting
the president is a crime in Turkey punishable by up to four years in
jail, but the law has previously been invoked only rarely. Critics
accuse Erdogan of intolerance and say he is using the law to stifle
dissent.
Those who have faced trial for insulting Erdogan include journalists, cartoonists, academics and even schoolchildren.
President Erdogan’s Thin Skin - The New York Times
