Kurdish Politician Puts up with Fine but Demands Respect

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is going to receive TL 30,000 (€ 15,000) in compensation from Osman Baydemir, Mayor of the Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality (south-eastern Anatolia). Erdoğan sued the Kurdish politician by reason of a statement made on 24 December 2009. Baydemir had said, "We tell the ones who divide us into hawks and doves to go to hell", using a very rude expression in Turkish. On Wednesday (16 February), Baydemir declared that he was going to pay the fine.

PM Erdoğan had launched a trial on charges of "attacking his personal rights". The final hearing was held before the Ankara 10^th Civil Court of First Instance on Tuesday (15 February). The court decided for a TL 30,000 compensation fine. Erdoğan had initially claimed TL 50,000 (€ 25,000).

In yesterday's statement, Baydemir announced, "Our neutral and independent judiciary works with rocket speed. The decision was given within two sessions. I will not appeal the decision given by the utterly independent and completely neutral judiciary that has always been standing by the oppressed and just people until today".

"We were persecuted and the persecution is still going on"

The mayor continued, "The words I used were bad. But why did I use these bad words? To say it frankly, I was persecuted. We were persecuted. And this persecution is still going on".

"I promise to give the house I live in to the Prime Minister. I just have one wish. He should respect my people. He should respect us. I do not want anything else. I will pay 30,000 lira. I am going to pay in instalments though".

Subject of the litigation was Baydemir's speech delivered in front of the Diyarbakır Provincial Building of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) in December 2009. He said, "Are you not afraid of God? Why does nobody speak out on 16 mayors who were taken into custody? We will use all democratic and legitimate ways and the entire means on a national and international base until our friends will be released. Nobody should have a doubt about that".

Majority of cases filed against cartoonists

The compensation claims filed by the Prime Minister were subject of a resolution of questions at parliament in May 2005. The then Minister of Justice, Cemil Çiçek, announced that until that day, compensation claims worth TL 111,500 (€ 55,500) had been decided in favour of Erdoğan.

Erdoğan received TL 5,000 (E 2,500) from Cumhuriyet newspaper illustrator Musa Kart because he drew him as a cat in 2004. A further TL 10,000 (€ 5,000) he got from Evrensel newspaper on the grounds of another caricature. The Court of Appeals quashed both verdicts. The Penguen magazine published its 24 February 2005 issue with the headline "The Tayyip kingdom" on the front page in protest of these cases. The magazine was sued thereupon. Mehmet Çağçağ from the Leman magazine was prosecuted by reason of depicting Erdoğan as a tick on the cover of the issue dated 6 June 2006. Both trials were dismissed.

The Leman magazine had to pay TL 4,000 (€ 2,000) in compensation to Erdoğan because of a photograph on the cover page of the 6 February 2008 issue. Furthermore, the Prime Minister received TL 10,000 from Deniz Bölükbaşı, Deputy Chair of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), TL 3,000 (€ 1,500) from Oktay Vural, Parliamentary Group Chair of the CHP and TL 10,000 from Deniz Baykal, former Chair of the Republican People's Party (CHP). (AS/VK)