MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Turkish law enforcement agencies have initiated 1,845 criminal cases for insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the local Hurriyet daily reported Wednesday.
"When we look at the insults toward the president, I cannot even read them. My face gets red. Nobody should have a right to curse," Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said, as quoted by the newspaper.
24 February 2016, 21:55 GMT
According to the paper, after the first direct presidential elections in Turkey in 2014, which Erdogan won, numerous charges of insulting president have been initiated against a significant number of citizens, including journalists, bloggers, and high school students.
Recently, Erdogan filed two lawsuits against head of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who had called then-Prime Minister Erdogan "prime thief," according to the newspaper, and against Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtas.
