“You got to power, but you failed to be a proper man,” snapped Deniz Baykal, the leader of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) criticizing the language used by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his election campaigning. “This maganda style does not suit a prime minister,” he added. The definition of the slang word, maganda, is given in Turkish dictionaries as “an ill-mannered, vulgar and uncouth man.”
Erdogan retorted by opening a libel case against Baykal demanding 50,000 TL ($28,000) in damages. But the argument did not stop there. Baykal addressing his party group defended himself. “Let’s see the epithets the prime minister hurled at us so far. He used words like ‘scum,’ ‘politically immoral,’ ‘dishonest’ towards us? What is more appropriate than saying that this style does not fit a prime minister? Until now, the prime minister opened four libel cases against me. Every single one of them was rejected by the courts. We never went to court against him. If he wants to have respect he must learn how to show respect to others,” Baykal said.
Local elections in Turkey scheduled for March 29, have already provided enough material to keep the courts busy, mostly coming from Erdogan’s lawyers. Baykal was not the only politician to become the object of litigation by Erdogan. In a flurry of libel cases, Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the rightwing Nationalist Action Party (MHP) and a number of journalists also took their share of court cases for “insulting” the prime minister.
One petition by Erdogan’s lawyers alleged that Bahceli “violated the personality rights” of Erdogan in a written campaign statement by saying, “Prime Minister Erdogan has appeared before the Turkish nation with a low level and cheap strategy based on lies, slander, abuse and deception. By taking up the weapon of slander and mud-slinging and distributing election bribes he is playing the role of an apostle of democracy and a false hero.”
If this libel case results in a conviction, it will cost Bahceli 50,000 TL ($28,000), a similar amount demanded from Baykal. However, the prime minister’s lawyers display a rather more lenient disposition towards the journalists they are taking to court. Emin Colasan, an avowed critic of the prime minister who lost his column in the mainstream Hurriyet newspaper two years ago is also being sued for insulting Erdogan in one of his television shows. But the indemnity he is asked to pay, if found guilty, is only 10,000 TL ($5,700). Likewise, Cumhuriyet columnist Cuneyt Arcayurek and Yeni Cag writer Selcan Tasci will also face the court for libeling the prime minister punishable by a 10,000 TL fine each. Tasci’s offense was to publish a Photoshop doctored picture of Erdogan as Pinocchio.
-Opposition cries “Blackmail!” –
Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin’s remarks at the opening of Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) campaign office in Antalya triggered a volley of angry diatribes from opposition politicians. Sahin, addressing the people, said that if they want the local administration to carry out municipal projects successfully they should vote for candidates that maintain “friendly” relations with the government in Ankara.
“Local administrations that are at loggerheads with our government cannot get through their projects in Ankara. Unfortunately, this is a reality in Turkey. If people who are not in a fight with the government, who are in harmony with the government are elected to local administrative posts, then our problems will be solved in a faster manner,” said Sahin.
Opposition politicians reacted to Sahin’s remarks accusing him of “threatening and blackmailing the voters.”
CHP’s Izmir deputy Ahmet Ersin described Sahin’s remarks as “a confession that all the citizens are compelled to submission in the face of AKP.” The CHP deputy underlined that mayors serve all the people under their administration and depriving those who belong to parties other than AKP is in fact boils down to discrimination between the citizens.
“As Justice Minister, Sahin cannot occupy that post any longer because he has shown that he has no notion of democracy whatsoever,” said Ersin.
MHP’s deputy group chairman Oktay Vural also said that Sahin’s comments were “incompatible with the title he is carrying.” “If justice finds so much favoritism, so much blackmail and threats permissible, then it is in a very sad stage,” Vural said.
Following the outcry from the opposition benches, Sahin clarified his remarks by saying, “My purpose was not to say you must vote for our party or if you vote for other candidates we won’t help them. As politicians we sometimes utter statements that inadvertently go beyond what we mean.”
-Potential troublemaker for Erdogan under police custody –
Mustafa Kemal Oncel,47, is a farmer in the southern city of Mersin. He earned instant fame in 2006 when he got engaged in a verbal argument with Erdogan during his campaign tour before the 2007 elections. Oncel complained about the financial situation of the farmers and got a harsh scolding from the prime minister who told him “Get lost!” Of course, Oncel was bundled up by Erdogan’s bodyguards and he later claimed that he was beaten up by them. Just before Erdogan’s campaign trip to Mersin last week, policemen took Oncel from his home early in the morning and kept him at the police station until the prime minister left the town. “He was not under arrest or anything. We just wanted him to testify about a subject,” said a police spokesman in Mersin. It was obvious that the authorities did not want the troublemaker upset the prime minister once again.
