Erdoğan targets main opposition CHP's İzmir provincial organization with five fresh 'insult' lawsuits

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has filed lawsuits against five officials from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP)'s İzmir provincial organization on charges of “insulting the president.”

One of the five people accused of “insulting the president” is 24-year-old Dila Koyurga, the secretary of CHP İzmir youth branches as well as the councillor of the Karabağlar district. Koyurga faces charges for tweets she posted when she was 17 years old, former CHP deputy Zeynep Altıok Akatlı wrote on Twitter.

“Trolls are now targeting one of our young members of the [Karabağlar] municipal council by sharing her tweets she posted back in 2013 (at the age of 17). If you are looking for insults and swearing at Rte [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan], look the [previous] talks of Bahçeli and Soylu. You will find them in ample quantities,” Akatlı said, referring to Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) chair Devlet Bahçeli.

Bahçeli, who is now Erdoğan’s one and only ally, was once one of his fiercest rivals. Until recently, Bahçeli used to target Erdoğan with personal insults such as “separatist”, “dictator” and “thief”, but all this change when the two established “The People's Alliance” in 2018.

Meanwhile, Koyurga was briefly detained on May 27. After giving her testimony to the police, Koyurga was referred to a court which ruled for her release under judicial control.

Mustafa Doğan İnal, one of the lawyers of Erdoğan, targeted Koyurga on Twitter saying: “I would not want to share these tweets [of Koyurga], but I am sharing them for all to know. You will not pull through by simply erasing these disgusting tweets after sharing them. Do not cry saying 'one more opponent is standing trial, this is freedom of speech.' You will give account of this before the law.”

Gov't carrying out 'with hunt' against CHP, says İzmir provincial chair

CHP İzmir provincial chair Deniz Yücel slammed the government for targeting Koyurga and said that what it is doing amounts to a "witch hunt."

"Trolls are again on the job. Some people are trying to carry out a witch hunt on the social media. I call on to the modern inquisitors! The CHP itself has launched an investigation against the tweets alleged to have been posted by Karabağlar councillor Dila Koyurga when she was younger than 18 years old, in 2013. Following the investigation, our party's authorized councils will do what is necessary," Yücel wrote on Twitter on May 26.

He also said that the CHP is "aware of the troll network" set up by the government in an attempt to "defame the CHP youth." "We, as the representatives of a tradition which says wrong to whatever is wrong and which defends ethical values to the end, will kill the hopes of this hired troll army," he said.

Other than Koyurga, CHP's İzmir deputy chair Yasin Ergül, CHP's Gaziemir mayor Halil Arda, the former head of CHP's youth branches Volkan Gürboğa and CHP İzmir provincial organization member Caner Gül are facing charges of “insulting the president.”

Since Erdoğan took office in August 2014 as the president, the number of cases against people who allegedly “insulted” the president has spiked.

In Erdoğan’s first term (between 2014-2018), 17,406 individuals were investigated over Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code, which criminalizes insulting the president of the Republic. This marks a significant percent increase compared to the term of his predecessor Abdullah Gül, during which 848 cases were filed, Turkish media outlet reports had previously said, citing Justice Ministry statistics.