Investigation into insulting messages about Esra Albayrak and her family

* Photo: Twitter

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The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has announced that it has launched an ex officio investigation into the insulting social media messages about Esra and Berat Albayrak and their family. The suspects are charged with "insulting a public official," the Office has said.

After Berat Albayrak, the Minister of Treasury and Finance, announced on Twitter that he and his wife Esra Albayrak, who is also the daughter of President and ruling AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had their fourth child, a series of insulting comments and messages were shared about Esra Albayrak and her family on social media.

Releasing a written statement, the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has indicated that "based on an open source examination, it has been understood that comments that could be regarded as insults were shared about Minister Berat Albayrak himself and his family."

Accordingly, the Office has announced that an ex officio investigation has been launched against the suspects for "insulting a public official."

A person was also detained in Turkey's eastern Mediterranean province of Mersin yesterday (June 30) in relation with these messages.

Insults condemned by all segments

Shortly after the messages were shared on social media, several people, both from the ruling party and the opposition, have expressed solidarity with Esra Albayrak and her family and condemned the insults.

Facing a sexist attack herself not long ago, Başak Demirtaş, the wife of imprisoned former Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş, has tweeted a brief message and said, "I condemn the ugly remarks targeting Esra Albayrak. We have to struggle against this aggression towards women all together."

Main opposition Republican Peoples' Party (CHP) İstanbul Chair Canan Kaftancıoğlu, CHP's current and former MPs Faik Öztrak, Aykut Erdoğdu and Muharrem İnce, İYİ Party Chair Meral Akşener, Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Yavaş as well as AKP's former senior figures Ali Babacan and Ahmet Davutoğlu, now the Chairs of DEVA and Future parties, were also among the ones who condemned the insulting messages.

While CHP's Canan Kaftancıoğlu has said, "You will find all women side by side in the face of attacks targeting women," İYİ Party Chair Meral Akşener has noted, "It is shameful and immoral to turn spouses, children and grandchildren into subjects of politics. Politics cannot be done like this, it has nothing to do with humanity."

"Today, we have once again felt ashamed in the name of others," Felicity Party Chair (SP) Temel Karamollaoğlu has also said and added, "The immorality targeting Ms. Esra Albayrak is unacceptable; we are against immorality of every stripe no matter where it comes from." (EKN/TP/SD)