Erdoğan files suit for damages against CHP MP, demands 250 thousand lira

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has filed a lawsuit for damages against main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) İstanbul MP Aykut Erdoğdu over his remarks about him on his social media account on May 4.

In a statement released by Erdoğan's attorney Hüseyin Aydın, it has been announced that a lawsuit demanding 250 thousand lira (~30 thousand USD) has been filed at the Ankara Civil Court of First Instance. He has also said that a criminal complaint has been filed against him.

The petition submitted to the prosecutor's office has said, "It has been concluded that the posts of Aykut Erdoğdu went beyond freedom of expression, constituting an attack on personal rights as well as a crime."

Shortly after this application, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has announced that an investigation has been launched against main opposition CHP MP Aykut Erdoğdu "upon the criminal complaint submitted by the attorney of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the grounds that 27th term MP Aykut Erdoğdu, in his statement on Twitter on May 4, 2021, allegedly used insulting remarks about the President."

What happened?

In a series of 15 tweets on May 4, 2021, main opposition CHP İstanbul MP Aykut Erdoğdu alleged that reporters from the pro-government ATV and Sabah groups called his friends and blackmailed him.

Indicating that he was being wiretapped, followed and threatened, Erdoğdu said that Erdoğan established a "criminal organization", briefly stating:

"Mr. Erdoğan, there is no use for you to deal with the apparatus of the criminal organization that you founded... There is also no use in hiding the truth... You are the founder of this monstrous order which makes millions of people suffer and which does not have even a bit of conscience... You are the number one of this criminal organization." (HA/SD)