Erdoğan sues main opposition leader, demands half a million lira

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

Click to read the article in Turkish

Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has sued main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu because he "violated his personal rights" with his speech at the CHP Parliamentary Group meeting.

Erdoğan now demands 500 thousand Turkish Lira (~57 thousand dollars) in damages for CHP leader's speech dated June 29, 2021.

In the petition submitted by Erdoğan's attorney Hüseyin Aydın, it is argued that with his speech at the CHP Group meeting this week, Kılıçdaroğlu "hurled highly severe insults that violated his client's personal rights and had the characteristics of attacking his personality rights."

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'Limits of freedom of expression exceeded'

According to the petition of Erdoğan's attorney, Kılıçdaroğlu made some accusations against Erdoğan such as "affronting people's rightful share and bringing the law to an unrecorded terrain."

Against this background, Erdoğan has demanded that 500 thousand lira be collected from Kılıçdaroğlu and the court ruling to be handed down at the end of the trial be published in a widely circulated newspaper.

As reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA), in making these requests, the petition of Erdoğan's attorney has indicated that the accusations of Kılıçdaroğlu against President Erdoğan became subjects of court cases many times before and Kılıçdaroğlu was sentenced to pay damages over his statements. The attorney has claimed that the recent remarks of the main opposition leader "have gone beyond the limits of freedom of expression."

What did Kılıçdaroğlu say?

In his speech at the CHP Parliamentary Group meeting on June 29, CHP Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu briefly said:

"I would like to address my brothers and sisters from the AK Partyç I would like to address my brothers and sisters from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). How come Erdoğan and his family open an account and establish a face company to not pay taxes to Turkey?

"They do not pay a single penny to the state as tax.

"But, you, my brother or sister from the AK Party; do your morals accept this? My brother or sister from the Idealist [Hearths]; do your morals and conscience accept this? I am talking about Man Island.

"Just think about it: When the unrecorded [economy] grows, bribery grows, too. Who takes bribes? Public officials do. The give-and-take between two tradespeople is something else.

"But if a person in the state, a person governing the state receives money to do or not do his or her duty in office, then, it is called bribery.

"Süleyman Soylu, the Interior Minister of the state, said that a politician is paid 10 thousand dollars a month. What did Erdoğan say? Nothing, nothing at all. Will you continue voting for the one defending bribery?" (TP/SD)